Opposition activist Udaltsov to remain under house arrest until Oct 6
MOSCOW. Aug 1 (Interfax) - Moscow's Basmanny Court has extended the house arrest of the Left Front coordinator Sergei Udaltsov for two months, until October 6.
The court upheld a relevant request filed by investigators on Thursday, the Interfax correspondent reported.
The criminal case on Udaltsov, his aide Konstantin Lebedev, State Duma deputy aide Ilya Ponomaryov and Left Front activist Leonid Razvozzhayev was opened under the article for "preparation for organizing large-scale unrest" on October 17, 2012.
The criminal case was opened over the review of information in the Protest Anatomy 2 film aired on the NTV TV channel on October 5. The film concerned the foreign financial backing of the Russian opposition and claimed that opposition activists have prepared unrest in Moscow and other cities in advance.
The film creators claimed that head of the Georgian parliament's defense and security committee Givi Targamadze was the intermediary, while Udaltsov and nationalists were among those who executed the plan to boost the protest movement in Russia.
Lebedev and Razvozzhayev have been detained over the course the investigation. Travel restrictions were initially applied to Udaltsov but Udaltsov and Lebedev were placed under house arrest in February.
In January 2013 this criminal case was merged with the case on large-scale unrest at Moscow's Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012.
Lebedev has submitted confession statements against Udaltsov and Razvozzhayev. Lebedev has been sentenced to two years and six months in a penal colony during a special trial without a review of the evidence relevant to the case.