MOSCOW, January 31 (RAPSI) - The Third Commercial Court of Appeals set the March 7 as hearing date for an appeal filed by Kaluga Region Governor Anatoly Artamonov against the descision obliging him to pay 3 cents in compensation to Rusal CEO Oleg Deripaska, the court told RAPSI on Friday.

In December 2013, The Commercial Court of the Krasnoyarsk Territory ruled that Governor Anatoly Artamonov stated incorrect and defamatory information about Deripaska at a news conference, and ordered the governor to compensate Deripaska for moral damages with 1 ruble (3 cents).

According to the judicial disposition, the court declared an excerpt from an article published last August, titled ‘Artamonov calls Deripaska a crook’, at variance with the facts. The article claims that certain crooks plundered the company and then wanted to abandon it, and that they also “took all the profits, which is why the company is now in the condition that it is.”

Earlier, Artamonov told the Russian News Service that he did not intend to insult Deripaska, but was describing the management of his company. The governor said he meant that those in charge of Deripaska’s business in the Kaluga Region “had brought people to the end of their tether and had literally thrown them out onto the street.”

Artamonov added that one journalist had posted a distorted version of interview online, but stressed that he was not going to sue Komsomolskaya Pravda because he was “too busy.”

Commenting on the court order, Deripaska’s representative told RAPSI that “in light of Anatoly Artamonov’s intention to apologize, Oleg Deripaska is ready to end the dispute as soon as possible and is willing to consider any legitimate ways to resolve the dispute, including an amicable agreement.” The spokesperson said that this would be possible if the defendant filed an appeal to the order of the lower instance court.