MOSCOW (AP) -- The Moscow City Court ruled that registration requirements imposed by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to keep non-Muscovites out of the city violated the constitution and were invalid, officials said Tuesday.

While the Russian Constitution says Russian citizens can move freely around the country and live where they choose, the powerful Moscow mayor has long tried to block people from other Russian regions from moving to the capital.

Luzhkov claims that newcomers would overburden Moscow's social services, and that migrants are responsible for many of the crimes committed in the city. Those views get emphatic support from many Muscovites.

Despite strong protests from human rights groups, Luzhkov has revived Soviet-era residency restrictions, requiring non-Muscovites to register with the police. The process involves complex bureaucratic procedures, and often the payment of heavy bribes - while people without registration are subject to police harassment and the threat of deportation.

Russia's Constitutional Court ruled in 1996 that Moscow's registration system was illegal, but the city kept it in effect. Luzhkov further tightened registration rules following terrorist bombings last year that killed hundreds of people in Moscow and that were blamed on rebels from Chechnya. Luzhkov decreed that non-Muscovites reregister within three days, and gave police the right to expel those who failed to do so.

Russia's Movement for Human Rights sued the city, and on Monday the Moscow City Court ruled that Luzhkov's registration rules were invalid, said Luzhkov spokesman Mikhail Solomentsev.

The mayor's office will likely appeal to the Supreme Court, Solomentsev said.