Opposition activist Udaltsov remains under house arrest

Moscow City Court refused on Monday to revoke a restraint order against political opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov, leaving him under house arrest until October. Left Front leader Udaltsov has been under house arrest since February at his apartment in Moscow's Zatonnaya Street. He is banned from seeing acquaintances or using the telephone or the internet. Udaltsov is accused of organising mass riots on Bolotnaya Square and planning more mass disorders. The case against him was opened after the NTV television film Anatomy of Protest showed footage of a meeting between Russian opposition activists and Georgian politician Givi Targamadze discussing preparations for mass riots and their financing from abroad. The Bolotnaya case was opened after events of May 6, 2012, when an opposition rally on Bolotnaya Square, sanctioned by the authorities, escalated into clashes with police and mass disorder. More than 400 people were detained, some 30 policemen were injured and several dozen people were wounded. Targamadze was arrested in absentia by Moscow’s Basmanny court and put on the international wanted list. Udaltsov’s assistant, Leonid Razvozzhayev, is in a pretrial detention centre, and another participant in the meeting with Targamadze, Konstantin Lebedev, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.