MOSCOW -- Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov says he and his colleagues plan to sue Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Speaking after Putin's December 16 live question-and-answer session with Russian TV viewers, Nemtsov said that Putin lied and insulted him and his colleagues during the annual televised session.
Putin claimed that Nemtsov, together with fellow opposition politicians Vladimir Ryzhkov and Vladimir Milov, stole billions of rubles while in office in the 1990s and plan to steal even more in the event they come to power.
Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, is a co-founder of the recently created Russia Without Lawlessness and Corruption coalition.
Meanwhile, Moscow's Zamoskvorechye Court started hearings today in a libel suit against Nemtsov filed by businessman Gennady Timchenko.
Timchenko wants Nemtsov to publicly amend a section of his political pamphlet "Putin: The Results," in which he wrote that Timchenko took advantage of his close relations with Putin when the latter was president to promote his business interests.
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