KRASNODAR, September 18. /TASS/. The Arbitration Court of Russia’s Krasnodar region will decide on accepting the claim of businessman Oleg Deripaska filed against several foreign media by September 19, a spokesperson with the court told TASS on Wednesday.
"The documents are under consideration by the judge, he still has time — the five-day period set for taking a decision expires on September 19," the spokesperson said.
On September 13, Deripaska filed a lawsuit with 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 against the US Treasury with the Federal Court of Washington. He characterized 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 the 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 he directly owns only 0.01% of Rusal shares and is not entitled to receive dividends. The restrictions against the co-owner of those companies, Oleg Deripaska, remain in force.