MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Moscow police seek to sue Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and his allies for some 18 million rubles ($278,000) over this summer’s unauthorized rallies in the Russian capital, which put law enforcement personnel on alert, a court spokesperson told TASS.

The Interior Ministry’s Main Department has filed two lawsuits over the July 27 and August 3 rallies in Moscow. One of them was lodged against Navalny and former candidates to the Moscow City Duma, Vladimir Milov, Ilya Yashin, Ivan Zhdanov, Lyubov Sobol, Alexandra Solovyova, as well as the coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in Moscow Oleg Stepanov. The second lawsuit is against Sobol and a member of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Georgy Alburov.

"In both cases, the claimant requests compensation for the damage inflicted by deploying forces and equipment to ensure public order during unauthorized mass events," the spokesperson said.

Under the first lawsuit against Navalny and other politicians, police want a compensation to the tune of 8,489,156 rubles ($130,000) for the July 27 rally. The compensation demanded under the second lawsuit is 9,402,033 rubles ($144,979).

A pre-trial investigation under both lawsuits has been scheduled for October 21.