MOSCOW: A Moscow court yesterday opened the trial of radical opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov on charges of using the funding of a Georgian politician to try to destabilise President Vladimir Putin’s rule.
The high-profile case stems from bloody protests involving tens of thousands of demonstrators that broke out in Moscow on the eve of Putin’s swearing-in for a third Kremlin term in May 2012. The unrest led to hundreds of arrests and a crackdown on leaders of the youth-driven anti-Putin movement that emerged in response to tainted December 2011 parliamentary elections won narrowly by the ruling party.
Udaltsov and his co-defendant Leonid Razvozzhayev both face up to 10 years in a high security penal colony on charges of fomenting mass unrest and “destabilising the sociopolitical situation in the Russian Federation”.
“I expect nothing good from this case,” Udaltsov’s attorney Violetta Volkova told reporters outside Moscow City Court.
“Sergei is an absolutely peaceful politician,” said the lawyer. “The current political regime is thus tightening the screws on its political opponents.”
Both men pleaded not guilty during yesterday’s hearing.
AFP
