KRASNODAR, October 25. /TASS/. The Arbitration Court of Russia’s Krasnodar Region has upheld the lawsuit businessman Oleg Deripaska filed against several Western media to protect his business reputation. The court stated that publications by British newspapers The Telegraph and The Times and US weekly The Nation about the businessman did not correspond to reality. That is according to the information from the court’s register.

"[The court rules] to fully satisfy the claim," the court papers read.

During the court hearing, Deripaska’s lawyer Alexei Melnikov argued that the publications in foreign media are based on unverified information, while accusatory headlines contain data directly damaging business reputation of his client.

For example, the headline of the article in The Telegraph, "Oligarch linked to politicians 'ordered murder of banker'" contains information about an alleged violation of the law, the lawyer said.

The Times article "Billionaire ‘with mafia links spied on rivals'" claims that the businessman was involved in the activities of a criminal organization, which is also a criminal offense, while allegations of spying on competitors damage his business reputation.

The Nation’s article "McCain’s Kremlin Ties" contains information that the aluminum smelter in Montenegro was acquired as part of an opaque privatization tender. The Nation also claimed that Deripaska snapped up the aluminum plant "because Putin encouraged him to do it."

The lawyer noted that, according to the plaintiff, when publishing these articles, the foreign media did not check the information, provided by their sources, otherwise they could have attached written copies of supporting documents.

The representative of the plaintiff requested the satisfaction of the claim in full, including the removal of publications from the webpages and a retraction.

About lawsuit

On September 13, Deripaska filed a lawsuit in the Arbitration Court of the Krasnodar Region against The Nation, The Telegraph, and The Times newspapers. He claims that old articles by these publications promoted the US Treasury to impose personal sanctions against him in 2018.

Earlier, the businessman’s representative said that in March 2019, Oleg Deripaska had filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury Department, in which he disputes the personal sanctions imposed on him. He said that in order to justify the sanctions, the US Treasury Department referred only to three newspaper articles (by The Nation, The Telegraph and The Times) published in foreign media more than 10 years ago. According to the businessman, under the guise of proved facts, those articles presented ungrounded accusations against Deripaska made by his competitors, as well as rumors and speculations. These charges have never been confirmed in court and bear no relation to reality, the businessman’s representative stated.

In March 2019, Deripaska filed a lawsuit with the US Treasury in the Federal Court of Washington. He called sanctions introduced against him in April 2018 as unfair and illegal and noted that his wealth contracted by more than $7.5 bln due to sanctions in the complaint.

The US Treasury Department slapped sanctions on Oleg Deripaska and companies controlled by him on April 6, 2018. Sanctions covered Rusal, Basic Element, En+, Russian Machines, EuroSibEnergo, GAZ Group, B-Finance and Kuban agricultural holding.

On January 27, Washington time (January 28 Moscow time), the US Department of Treasury announced the removal of sanctions against Rusal, En + and EuroSibEnergo. However, it cost Deripaska control in his enterprises: in particular, his share in the En+ holding decreased from 70% to 44.95%, while in Rusal he directly owns only 0.01% of shares and is not entitled to receive dividends. The restrictions against the co-owner of those companies, Oleg Deripaska, remain in force.