The Russian Security Police (FSB) expressed deep dissatisfaction with the court decision in the Nikitin trial, in a tabloid newspaper based in St. Petersburg earlier this week.

Both the prosecution and Aleksandr Nikitin have appealed to the Russian Supreme Court, protesting the St. Petersburg City Court's ruling to send the case back to the prosecutor for further investigation.

"Basically, the whole Nikitin process may enter a vicious circle. The judge will return every new indictment from the FSB back for additional investigation. And the FSB will be coming up with the same indictment again and again," says Mariana Katzarova, Amnesty International's researcher on the Russian Federation.