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Navalny Challenges Moscow Election Results


Opposition leader Aleksei Navalny (center) stands outside the Moscow city court. (file photo)
Opposition leader Aleksei Navalny (center) stands outside the Moscow city court. (file photo)
Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has filed a lawsuit contesting the results of Moscow's mayoral election, which he lost to the Kremlin-backed incumbent.

Navalny and his aides on September 12 brought some 20 boxes stuffed with what they say is documentary evidence of vote violations to the Moscow city court. Navalny says his team has prepared more than 950 legal challenges to support his claim that the September 8 election was rigged.

According to official results, incumbent Sergei Sobyanin won 51 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff. Navalny was second with 27 percent.

Sobyanin is to be inaugurated later on September 12 in a ceremony that President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend. In a departure from tradition, Sobyanin's swearing-in is to take place in a museum at Moscow's Poklonnaya Gora War Memorial Park.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Interfax

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