MOSCOW, November 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow City Court will consider Saturday a lawsuit filed by the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) against the Rodina (Motherland) party, a senior member of the LDPR parliamentary faction said Friday.

"Let us hope that the court will uphold our claim and remove Rodina from the [Moscow Duma] election ballot," Alexei Mitrofanov said.

He said LDPR had accused Rodina of sparking inter-ethnic tension by launching a campaign TV advertisement urging people to remove the rubbish from Moscow. The Rodina clip features several men from the Caucasus tossing a watermelon rind at the feet of a passing Slavic girl with a baby.

"If Rodina wanted to establish order in the country they would have proposed certain legislative acts aimed at solving this problem, for example, a law on repatriation or toughening of the provisions of the Criminal Code on illegal migrants," Mitrofanov said.

Rodina, which considers itself the main rival of pro-presidential United Russia in the Moscow Duma elections, said that if the court ruled in favor of LDPR, it would file an appeal with the Russian Supreme Court.