MOSCOW, December 26 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow’s top court ruled to return to prosecutors the case of two Russian opposition activists charged with organizing riots last year, the RAPSI news agency reported.
Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the Left Front opposition movement, and Leonid Razvozzhayev, a member of the same leftist group, have been charged with plotting to incite mass riots in Moscow at a large rally on May 6, 2012.
That rally, on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to his third presidential term, ended with protesters clashing with police on the downtown Bolotnaya Square.
According to the Russian rules of criminal procedure, a judge can send a case back to prosecutors “to remove obstacles” that prevent it from being heard in court, such as procedural violations.
The judge upheld a request filed by the defense team, a court spokesman said.
Udaltsov said on his Twitter page that the judge also ruled to prolong the two suspects’ incarceration while the case is being reviewed.
The investigation into Udaltsov and Razvozzhayev was opened after the pro-Kremlin television channel NTV aired footage last October that it claimed showed the two men and another Left Front activist meeting with a Georgian politician to plot the destabilization of Russia.
