Moscow:
Russian investigators said on Monday that an opposition activist had turned himself in and confessed to plotting mass riots while the activist himself claimed he had been kidnapped from Ukraine and tortured.
Leonid Razvozzhayev, an assistant to a parliamentary lawmaker, was arrested in Moscow after he turned himself in and confessed to plotting the riots in Russia with foreign backing, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
However video footage released on Monday apparently showed him being led out of a Moscow court to a police van in handcuffs and shouting to journalists that he had been kidnapped and tortured.
In a further twist, a United Nations (UN) refugee agency spokeswoman in Kiev confirmed that Razvozzhayev had earlier disappeared while he was applying for refugee status there.
The 39-year-old activist "detailed the circumstances of plotting mass disturbances in Russia and participation in mass riots in Moscow on May 6 2012," the Investigative Committee said.
"According to Razvozzhayev's statement, these riots were financed by Givi Targamadze," a Georgian lawmaker, the committee said.
It added that Razvozzhayev, a member of the Left Front movement, would "shortly" be charged.
Razvozzhayev's allies on Monday rejected the official version of his arrest, however, and called it a harbinger of a new wave of repression against the opposition by the regime of Vladimir Putin.
An official at Ukraine's office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that Razvozzhayev was in the midst of his refugee status application in Kiev when he vanished on Friday.
"He went outside during a break and did not come back.
He disappeared, leaving his belongings behind," Oleksandra Makovska, spokeswoman for the agency's office in Ukraine said.
"The lawyers tried to contact him unsuccessfully. The lawyers were concerned about what happened and reported to the police that a man had disappeared," she said.
A video report published by LifeNews website on Monday shows Razvozzhayev being led into a van by policemen after his arrest on Sunday evening.
"I was tortured for two days!" he shouts to journalists. "They kidnapped me from Ukraine!"
Razvozzhayev is the second person to be arrested in the Russian probe into plotting mass riots, after Konstantin Lebedev last week. The third suspect, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, is free but faces restrictions on travelling.
The probe was launched against the three men after a smear documentary on pro-Kremlin NTV channel claimed they met with Georgian lawmaker Targamadze in June and plotted a coup, with the latter's financial backing.
Leonid Razvozzhayev, an assistant to a parliamentary lawmaker, was arrested in Moscow after he turned himself in and confessed to plotting the riots in Russia with foreign backing, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
However video footage released on Monday apparently showed him being led out of a Moscow court to a police van in handcuffs and shouting to journalists that he had been kidnapped and tortured.
In a further twist, a United Nations (UN) refugee agency spokeswoman in Kiev confirmed that Razvozzhayev had earlier disappeared while he was applying for refugee status there.
The 39-year-old activist "detailed the circumstances of plotting mass disturbances in Russia and participation in mass riots in Moscow on May 6 2012," the Investigative Committee said.
"According to Razvozzhayev's statement, these riots were financed by Givi Targamadze," a Georgian lawmaker, the committee said.
It added that Razvozzhayev, a member of the Left Front movement, would "shortly" be charged.
Razvozzhayev's allies on Monday rejected the official version of his arrest, however, and called it a harbinger of a new wave of repression against the opposition by the regime of Vladimir Putin.
An official at Ukraine's office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that Razvozzhayev was in the midst of his refugee status application in Kiev when he vanished on Friday.
"He went outside during a break and did not come back.
He disappeared, leaving his belongings behind," Oleksandra Makovska, spokeswoman for the agency's office in Ukraine said.
"The lawyers tried to contact him unsuccessfully. The lawyers were concerned about what happened and reported to the police that a man had disappeared," she said.
A video report published by LifeNews website on Monday shows Razvozzhayev being led into a van by policemen after his arrest on Sunday evening.
"I was tortured for two days!" he shouts to journalists. "They kidnapped me from Ukraine!"
Razvozzhayev is the second person to be arrested in the Russian probe into plotting mass riots, after Konstantin Lebedev last week. The third suspect, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, is free but faces restrictions on travelling.
The probe was launched against the three men after a smear documentary on pro-Kremlin NTV channel claimed they met with Georgian lawmaker Targamadze in June and plotted a coup, with the latter's financial backing.
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