MOSCOW, June 21 (RAPSI) - Banker Alexander Lebedev did not punch businessman Sergei Polonsky during the filming of a show on the NTV channel. Polonsky stumbled on a chair, witness Sergei Lisovsky said in the Ostankinsky District Court in Moscow on Friday.

"It seemed that the blows only (...) reached his arms but not his face. At the most, it was a graze, not a blow," Lisovsky said.

He said he was surprised at "how softly it was done." "Polonsky fell because of the studio's uncomfortable one-leg chairs, which were perched right at the edge of the platform. You only had to lean back a bit too much to fall," he added.

Lisovsky also said that "Polonsky was very excited, aggressive and inflammatory," as if "drunk, sick or ill-bred." "He was aggressively active and openly condescending. In fact, I was waiting for an attack, because I was sure that Polonsky would attempt to punch one of us," Lisovsky said, adding that Lebedev snatched the initiative.

He believes that Lebedev did the right thing. "As a man he did the right thing, but as a participant of the show he should have kept within legal bounds. Had he not reacted but left the studio seething with anger, only to settle accounts later, this would have been a violation of moral standards. But he responded to the provocation immediately, which is acceptable," Lisovsky said.

He added that no political issues were raised on the show, which was held to discuss economic issues, "swindlers and profiteers."

Lebedev has been accused of hooliganism and battery.

The initial charges against Lebedev were made last September, more than a year after he punched Polonsky during the show. The scuffle ensued after Polonsky accused Lebedev of spreading a rumor about a crack in the Moscow City skyscraper that his firm was building.

Lebedev, 52, is the co-owner of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and the owner of The Independent. He supported a program to raise funds for opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption project RosPil, and had also made repeated claims about a persecution campaign against his businesses in Russia by the government, a charge that the authorities deny.

In early January, Polonsky ended up in a fracas in Cambodia, when he and two other Russians allegedly attacked the six-person crew of a boat ferrying them from a Cambodian island to Sihanoukville. The sailors later dropped their charges.

Polonsky and two other Russian nationals, Konstantin Baglay and Alexander Karachinsky, were arrested on December 31. Baglay and Karachinsky were released on bail on March 11, 2013. On April 3, Polonsky was released from the Cambodian prison but was restricted from leaving the country.