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Moscow court upholds ruling on Rosneft CEO’s lawsuit against Vedomosti business daily

MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court has upheld a ruling obliging Russian business daily Vedomosti to delete an article about a residence of oil giant Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin in the luxury Moscow suburb of Barvikha, a TASS correspondent reports from the courtroom.

The court has also ruled that Vedomosti must destroy the remaining copies of the newspaper with the article published on July 20 this year.

The court has therefore rejected the business daily’s complaint. The court’s ruling has entered into force on Friday.

During the hearings, the newspaper’s representatives told the court that the disputed publication was based on public domain information and was no intrusion into private life.

"The authors of the article took information from open sources without violating anyone’s right to privacy. Even today we can receive reference information from the Federal Service for Property Registration similar to the data that were used to write the material," the business daily’s lawyer said.

In turn, Sechin’s representatives insisted in the court that the information spread by the newspaper presented no public interest and exclusively affected the personal life of the Rosneft head.

"The reference information from the Federal Service for Property Registration is intended for use in commercial deals and for other similar goals but here we see the abuse of the right by journalists who received information, generalized and published it," the lawyer of the Rosneft head said.

Moscow’s Ostankisnky Court ruled on September 16 that the disputed publication "is violating the plaintiff’s right to the inviolability of his private life" and obliged the newspaper to delete it from the website and destroy all the available copies dated July 20.

The Rosneft CEO earlier filed a similar lawsuit on the protection of his honor, dignity and business reputation against Novaya Gazeta over its article alleging that Sechin possessed a luxury yacht. Moscow’s Basmanny Court also granted Sechin’s lawsuit. Novaya Gazeta challenged the ruling in the Moscow City Court.