MOSCOW (AP) — The former mayor of Moscow and one of the founders of Russia's ruling United Russia party, Yuri Luzhkov, has died at the age of 83.

Russia's Ren TV channel reported Tuesday that Luzhkov died in Munich, where he was undergoing heart surgery.

Luzhkov, a political heavyweight of the Boris Yeltsin era, was the mayor of Moscow for 18 years and was one of the founders of the United Russia party, Russian President Vladimir Putin's longtime political platform.

In 2010, Luzhkov was dismissed from his post in the Moscow City Hall by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev despite his close ties to Putin. He moved to London, but remained very vocal about Russian domestic affairs.