MOSCOW, August 18 - RAPSI, Alyona Yegorova. The Moscow Commercial Court suspended until August 25 the hearing in the defamation lawsuit of Alexander Lebedev and the National Reserve Bank against the Kommersant publisher, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) reports from the courtroom.

According to earlier reports, Lebedev requested that Kommersant refute information in its publication that a criminal case on the theft of state funds in relation to the bank was under investigation. The funds were allocated to bailout the Rossiysky Capital bank.

Newspaper journalists are acting as co-defendants.

According to the National Reserve Bank website, the National Reserve Corporation (controlled by Lebedev) holds 59.83 percent of the bank, Lebedev holds 4.58 percent, his son Yevgeny holds 13.79 percent, VEB Capital head Yuri Kudimov holds 18.38 percent and the Federal Agency for State Property Management holds 2.74 percent.