Udaltsov Sees House Arrest Extended

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: April 3, 2013 (Issue # 1753)

Alexander Zemlyanichenko / ap Udaltsov leaves the court hearing in Moscow on Monday. The court ruled to keep him under house arrest until August 6.

MOSCOW — Opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov, who has been accused of scheming to incite “mass disorder,” will spend the summer at home.

A Moscow court on Monday ruled that his house arrest would continue till Aug. 6, during which time he is unable to speak with fellow activists, use the telephone or Internet, or even go outside without police supervision.

The head of the radical socialist Left Front movement, who has been under house arrest since Feb. 9, told the Basmanny District Court that he had done nothing wrong and his innocence would be proved.

He was initially given the right to leave his apartment under the condition that he would not leave town, but the court ruled that he had violated that agreement on numerous occasions.

The accusations against Udaltsov, which include plotting to violently overthrow the ruling regime, were officially made after a man alleged to be him was shown in a national television exposé discussing funding from a political ally of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to support his cause.

In the video, grainy figures resembling Udaltsov and Georgian politician Givi Targamadze discuss inciting a revolt. Udaltsov has claimed that he was not in the footage.

Georgia and Russia fought a five-day war in August 2008, and relations between the countries have only recently begun to improve, following the election of a new Georgian prime minister with close ties to Russia.