A Moscow court has seized the property of a prominent theater and film director who is being investigated for fraud.

Kirill Serebrennikov, arguably Russia's best known director, was detained and put under house arrest in August in a criminal case that sent shockwaves across Russia's art community and raised fears of a return to Soviet-style censorship.

Investigators accuse him of scheming to embezzle about $1.1 million in government funds allocated for one of his productions and the projects he directed. He has dismissed the charges as absurd.

Russian news agencies on Thursday quoted the Basmanny district court as saying that it has ordered the blocking of all of Serebrennikov's property including his apartment in central Moscow, his car and 60,000 euros in a bank account.