MOSCOW, November 1 - RAPSI, Natalia Belova. A court held against billionaire Alexander Lebedev and his National Reserve Bank (NRB) in their defamation lawsuit against the Kommersant publisher, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) reports from the courtroom.

The plaintiff sought 11 million rubles ($360,000) in damages.

Lebedev sought the court order to force the Kommersant newspaper to refute information that the NRB was prosecuted for embezzling funds allocated to bailout the Rossiysky Capital bank. The story was published in the April 26 issue. It alleged that investigators initiated a criminal case for large-scale fraud in August 2010, the NRB's offices were searched and Lebedev was interrogated as a witness.

The bank's lawyer told the court that journalists published false information and damaged the bank's reputation.