KRASNODAR, October 25. /TASS/. The decision of the Arbitration Court of Russia’s Krasnodar Region recognizing publications about Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska as untrue was served to representatives of UK-based newspapers The Telegraph and The Times and US weekly The Nation, Deripaska’s counsel Alexei Melnikov told TASS on Wednesday. 

The Court issued the decision on October 25, fully sustaining Deripaska’s claim for protection of business reputation and binding the foreign mass media to delete untrue and discrediting information about the businessman from their websites within 10 days from the time when the decision carried into effect and post retractions of such information within the same term. Required papers and the court decision translated into English were sent to the media, Melnikov said. The Nation said on October 30 that they had not seen any legal papers about this claim. TASS has no comments from other respondents in the case.

"The court decision was served to respondents," the counsel said. The court set the period of one month for appealing against the decision and it will come into legal effect after that, he added.

It was reported earlier that representatives of respondents had been notified via DHL about hearings but did not appear in court. They also did not furnish any written objections.

About lawsuit

The US Treasury Department introduced sanctions against 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 DC 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 himself, remain in force.

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 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 said.

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. It was reported earlier that court documents were translated by representatives of the businessman into English in order to provide respondents with an opportunity to present evidence of trustworthiness of their information during the open court process.