OREANDA-NEWS. Businessman Oleg Deripaska has filed a lawsuit against the publishers of the newspapers The TImes, The Telegraph and The Nation, follows from an electronic file of cases. The document was sent to the Arbitration Court of the Krasnodar Territory. “So far, only the lawsuit has been filed; it's currently under consideration by the judge. In addition to the fact that he is on the protection of business reputation, we can’t provide any details so far”, the court’s press service told the Russian business media.

The representative of Deripaska explained to the Russian media that the lawsuit was filed against publications whose articles the US Treasury Department used as justification for imposing sanctions on the businessman. These materials were published more than ten years ago. In them, according to a representative of Deripaska, under the guise of facts, rumors, conjectures and allegations of the businessman’s competitors are stated, which were not confirmed in court.

Russian legislation gives a citizen the right to defend his business reputation in a legal dispute with foreign media at his place of residence, because Deripaska also filed a lawsuit against British publications in the arbitration court of the Krasnodar Territory, a businessman’s representative said. Deripaska came under U.S. sanctions in April 2018. Together with him, En+ related to him, controlled by UC Rusal and Eurosibenergo, as well as Basic Element, Russian Machines, GAZ Group, fell under sanctions.

In January 2019, sanctions against En +, UC Rusal and Eurosibenergo were lifted. The US Treasury Department called the reduction of their share in the En + holding structure so that the businessman could not exercise control over them as a condition for removing these companies from sanctions in the US Treasury. The businessman agreed to this. As a result, En+, UC Rusal and Eurosibenergo were removed from the sanctions. Deripaska himself and his other companies remain on the US blacklist.