MOSCOW, August 22 (RAPSI) - The Moscow City Court on Thursday rejected a motion to examine Vladimir Putin's signature on the document permitting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to run again for the office of Moscow Mayor, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

The motion was filed by opposition stalwart and candidate Alexei Navanly. The activist's attorney says that the document allowing Sobyanin, who officially resigned in June in order to then participate in following snap elections, is "questionable". He explained that the form was out of order, and the document was filed officially by the mayor's office ,not by an independent citizen.

Navalny moved for the court to call for handwriting analysis of President Vladimir Putin's signature on the document. The Moscow election regulator representative and the prosecution opposed the motion.

Moscow's mayoral election will take place on September 8. Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who enjoys the support of the ruling United Russia party, is the clear frontrunner in the race according to recent polls.

Navalny was convicted in July of timber embezzlement stemming from a stint spent serving as an advisor to Kirov governor Nikita Belykh between May and September 2009. According to investigators, Navalny organized the theft of over 10,000 cubic meters of timber during that period in collusion with Vyatka Timber Company Director Pyotr Ofitserov and Kirovles CEO Vyacheslav Opalyov.

He was sentenced to five years in a penal colony, and his co-accused Pyotr Ofitserov received a four-year sentence. The two were held liable to pay a one million ruble fine between them. In a surprise move, however, he was released following the conviction pending his appeal, which has been filed.

Prosecutors had filed a request for he and Ofitserov to be released from custody pending appeal based on the fact of Navalny's candidacy for Moscow mayor, and the concern that he should be afforded the same rights as other candidates.

In addition to the Kirovles embezzlement case, investigators have opened three other criminal cases against Navalny, on charges of embezzlement from a political party, deceiving an international cosmetics company, and illegally conspiring to privatize a central Russia distillery.