MOSCOW, March 27 - RAPSI. The Moscow City Court has declared lawful the $3,400 award from Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s most independent and outspoken media sources, in the Presidential Administrative Directorate's defamation lawsuit.

The decision has entered into force and the funds will be donated to a childrens home, the directorate's press secretary Viktor Khrekov told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI).

The lawsuit arose out of the newspaper report pointing out to the discrepancies between the income declarations submitted by the directorate's personnel and the more modest figures reported earlier.

Initially the plaintiff sought one million rubles ($34,200) and secured part of the claimed award in November. The paper contested the judgment, but did not succeed.

The same court has upheld two more directorate's lawsuits against Novaya Gazeta which concerned two other reports. One alleged that the directorate contracted fly-by-night companies. The other said directorate officials drained to their affiliates 800 million rubles ($27 million) in public funds.

The newspaper has also been obligated to refute such information.