MOSCOW, November 13 (RAPSI) - The Lyublinsky District Court of Moscow has again, for the ninth time, upheld an obligation of Alexey Navalny to pay a fine for failure to delete parts of a video about businessman Alisher Usmanov, the court’s spokesperson Lyudmila Morozova has told RAPSI.
According to Morozova, the opposition politician is to pay 2,500 rubles (about $40) for non-compliance with a court decision.
In May 2017, the court granted a libel suit lodged by Usmanov against Navalny. The court recognized information about Usmanov distributed by the Anti-Corruption Foundation and Navalny as discrediting and untrue and ordered the defendants to refute the statements. Later, the Supreme Court of Russia upheld the ruling.
The lawsuit was related to a movie published by the politician on his Youtube channel implying that Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had acquired property using non-profit foundations.
In particular, the movie implied that Usmanov had gifted a land plot with a mansion to a foundation allegedly controlled by Medvedev. The Prime Minister said that intent of “these so-called investigations” is to get people out onto the streets and to achieve particular political goals. Usmanov said that Navalny misled people and that his assertions were libel.
The court ruling took effect in August 2017. However, the defendants failed to remove the video.
According to the updated 2017 ranking compiled by Forbes magazine, Usmanov holds the fifth place in the list of Russia’s richest businessmen with a net worth $15.2 billion. His largest assets are shares in the ore and steel giant Metalloinvest, shares in electronics, media and telecom companies as well as 30% of shares in Arsenal Football Club.