A Moscow court rejected opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s lawsuit against President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
Navalny filed the suit against Putin Nov. 1, claiming that the Kremlin illegally orders regional authorities throughout Russia to reject his requests for rallies.
Navalny hopes to run in presidential elections next March but is barred from participating by a criminal conviction that he says is politically motivated.
His lawyer wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that Navalny's suit was rejected.
A spokeswoman for Tverskoy court later told the Interfax news agency that it wasn’t authorized to hear administrative cases. Ivan Zhdanov, Navalny’s lawyer, vowed to appeal the rejection.
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