Watchdog

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has announced that he and his wife, Yelena Baturina, have filed a lawsuit against opposition activist Boris Nemtsov, RFE/RL's Russian Service reported.

Luzhkov said that Nemtsov's recent brochure, "Luzhkov, Itogi" (Luzhkov, the Results), is untrue and therefore libelous.

Nemtsov -- cochairman of the opposition Solidarnost (Solidarity) movement -- writes about Luzhkov's activities as mayor in the brochure.

He alleges possible improprieties between Moscow city officials and the Inteko company, which is owned and run by Baturina.

Nemtsov is a former deputy prime minister and a cofounder of the Union of Rightist Forces.

He has long been an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Nemtsov told RFE/RL that he is ready for any court hearings against him, adding that he has the necessary documents to back up the claims he makes in his brochure.

Luzkhov has been mayor of Moscow since 1992.

His wife is thought to be the richest woman in Russia, with an estimated net worth of more than $1 billion.

Kazakhstan is calling for an end to international pressure over the case of jailed human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Yermukhamet Yertysbaev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev's political adviser, said others should not judge the case until an appeal of Zhovtis's sentence has been ruled on by the court.

Yertysbaev made his comments at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw on September 28.

A Kazakh court this month sentenced Zhovtis, the director of the nongovernmental organization Bureau for Human Rights, to four years in prison for manslaughter and violating traffic regulations following a July accident in which the car he was driving struck and killed a man on a highway.

Zhovtis has appealed his sentence but a date for the hearing has not been scheduled.

The OSCE, the United States, and the European Parliament have expressed concern over Zhovtis's case and human rights groups such as Freedom House have called his trial unfair.

This month protesters held rallies in support of Zhovtis in front of the Kazakh embassies in Moscow, Bishkek, and Warsaw.

Kazakhstan will take over the chair of the OSCE in January.