Russian activist says he was tortured

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MOSCOW, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A Russian opposition figure said he was abused for two days after he was detained in Ukraine on charges of supporting the ouster of President Vladimir Putin.

Russian authorities this week confirmed opposition supporter Leonid Razvozzhayev was in custody. He allegedly confessed to supporting a plot to overthrow the government alongside opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov.

He was quoted by Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti as saying while leaving a Moscow courthouse that he was abused by authorities.

"They tortured me for two days, they kidnapped me in Ukraine," he said. Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for a Russian investigative committee, said Razvozzhayev was in his "right mind" when he signed a confession, however.

A spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine told the BBC that Razvozzhayev had disappeared from Kiev following a meeting with U.N. officials. Razvozzhayev and Udaltsov were connected to an alleged coup plot alongside a politician in Georgia.

Opposition to Putin has grown since he secured a non-consecutive third-term in office in an early 2012 election viewed by some monitoring groups as fraudulent.