The leader of the Russian liberal opposition party Yabloko lodged on Monday a law suit in the Moscow City Court, demanding to call off the general plan of the city's development.
"Today we have filed a suit in which we ask to cancel the general [development] plan of the city as illegal," Sergei Mitrokhin said, adding that it should be reworked with the help of Russian and foreign independent experts.
He said that the court would decide whether to consider the suit within five days.
The Moscow City Duma adopted the capital's development plan through 2025 in early May despite strong opposition from the Regional Development Ministry.
It was signed by Mayor Yury Luzhkov on May 28 amid increased public anger over his grandiose reconstruction schemes, which have seen the city change beyond recognition over the past two decades but have been decried by critics as destroying its architectural heritage.
The plan drew scathing criticism from the Public Chamber, Russia's state monitoring institution, which dubbed it "a death sentence" for the capital.
Mitrokhin said the document was illegal as it was not coordinated with the federal government and Moscow Region officials. Moreover, an official examination of the plan was only carried out after it was adopted by the city legislators.
If the development plan goes through, he said, "the city will turn into a concrete jungle... it would end in catastrophe."
MOSCOW, June 7 (RIA Novosti)
