MOSCOW, April 3 - RAPSI. Real estate magnate Sergei Polonsky has been released from prison in Cambodia, but he is required to stay in the country, a Russian diplomat told RIA Novosti on the phone on Wednesday.

He will have to reside at a location designated by the judge and must sign in at the local police department once a month, said Pavel Seskanov, head of the Consular Department at the Russian Embassy to Cambodia.

According to the diplomat, the Embassy has been working to achieve this decision for a long time. The issue was last raised at a meeting of the Russian-Cambodian Intergovernmental Commission on April 2.

Polonsky was released on bail of $50,000, the businessman's attorney Alexander Dobrovinsky said.

Once one of Russia's wealthiest men, Polonsky was detained alongside Konstantin Baglay and Alexander Karachinsky on Dec. 30, 2012 for attacking the six-person crew of a boat ferrying them from a Cambodian island to Sihanoukville. The three Russians allegedly threatened the crew at knifepoint and locked them in a cabin. Baglay and Karachinsky were released earlier on bail.

State Duma Deputy Alexei Chepa, a Russia-Cambodia Commission member said that, after analyzing the case, it became apparent that Polonsky has made every effort to prevent himself from being released. The media and bloggers have circulated Polonsky's statements that no one is trying to help him. "According to the prison administration, he has been behaving so as to prolong his imprisonment. At the same time, he is accusing the Russian authorities of failing to come to his assistance," Chepa said.

One record of such incident says that on January 21, Polonsky burned his bed linens and books in a bonfire on his cell floor to protest the fact that he remains in custody even after the victims recalled their lawsuits against him. The stunt landed him in a disciplinary cell.

These developments came to light amidst widespread social media speculations about the truth behind Polonsky Cambodian legal drama. While noting his known flamboyant and often crass behavoiur, some analysts suspected that the Cambodia debacle may be a deliberate ploy to avoid liabilty for the bankruptcy of his real estate empire, The Mirax Group.