Defamation lawsuit between Prokhorov and TMT finally ends in a peaceful agreement
The protracted reputation damage lawsuit filed by Onexim Investment Group owner Michael Prokhorov against The Moscow Times (TMT) newspaper finally ended in September with the signing of a peaceful agreement between the two parties.
“Within the peaceful agreement Prokhorov recognizes that the publication of the interview of Vladimir Potanin, his former Interross business partner, in the newspaper on June 11, 2008, was not intended to damage his reputation. Therefore, the parties have agreed to stop all further legal proceedings on this issue,” Onexim said. From her part, TMT publisher Ekaterina Son, commenting on the issue, called the agreement with Prokhorov and his recognition of the paper’s innocence in the issue ‘the best way’ out of the legal quagmire.
The legal battle was incited by a statement made by Interros president in the interview, where he questioned the ‘purity’ of Onexim’s sale of its blocking stake in Norilsk Nickel to Russian Aluminium. After the publication of the interview, Prokhorov filed the defamation charge with the Moscow Arbitration Court, which ruled in his favor, and ordered the newspaper to refute the statement on its pages.
The court also obliged both the paper and Potanin o pay Rub1,000 each. The decision was upheld by higher courts. However, the TMT management, not satisfied with these rulings, challenged them in at different court levels, including filing a complaint with the Russian Supreme Arbitration Court.
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