KRASNODAR, December 2. /TASS/. The Arbitration Court of Russia’s Krasnodar Region has not received any appeals from the Western media against its decision that their publications about businessman Oleg Deripaska do not correspond with reality, an official with the court told TASS on Monday.
Taking into consideration the absence of appeals, the court’s decision has come into effect, Deripaska’s lawyer Alexei Melnikov told TASS.
On October 25, the Arbitration Court of Russia’s Krasnodar Region upheld the lawsuit businessman Oleg Deripaska filed against British newspapers The Telegraph and The Times and US weekly The Nation in order to protect his business reputation.
The court states that the publications about the businessman in those newspapers do not correspond to reality. It obliged the media to delete these articles from their websites, to issue a correction and to compensate the payment of state fees worth 54,000 rubles ($839) to Deripaska.
Melnikov informed earlier that the court had sent the decision and all the necessary documents translated into English to the respondents.
"The court has not received any petitions of appeal from the plaintiffs," a court representative told TASS.
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 prompted 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 said.
In March 2019, Deripaska filed a lawsuit against 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 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 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.