Investigators said Friday that they would seek a court order imposing house arrest on Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov after the opposition leader violated restrictions imposed on him for allegedly orchestrating anti-government riots.
Among the reasons for the move, Investigative Committee head Vladimir Markin said in a statement on the committee's website that Udaltsov had not lived at the address at which he is registered, had turned off his cell phone and refused to answer investigators questions as to his whereabouts.
Markin said Udaltsov had also continued to participate in unsanctioned rallies, thus violating restrictions imposed on him in October.
Responding to investigators' claims, Udaltsov told Interfax that he had always answered investigators' summons and hadn't broken any rules.
"I can only make one conclusion — that the aim is to limit my public activism as much as possible, to bring me under close control. It is possible that this is being done ahead of new mass protests," he said.
Udaltsov, who is accused of orchestrating the infamous May 6 riots on Bolotnaya Ploshchad, made headlines on Wednesday when he got into a fistfight with Other Russia activists outside a memorial service for Alexander Dolmatov, who killed himself last month in the Netherlands after being refused asylum.
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