[2] Sergei Sobyanin, the incumbent Mayor of Moscow, was re-elected for a new term in 2018 and then in 2023.

The mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within Moscow.

In 2004, Vladimir Putin proposed a law to abolish the direct election of governors, the mayor of Moscow, and the presidents of Russian regions.

[3] The new legislation changed the election system to an indirect one, in which parliamentary political parties and the President of Russia nominated a candidate who must then have been approved by the Moscow City Duma.

Following the 2011–13 Russian protests that followed the 2011 parliamentary election, President Dmitry Medvedev offered to re-introduce the direct elections of the governors and the mayor of Moscow, and legislation to this effect was passed by the Parliament.