Oleg Deripaska rejoiced at the compensation – Kommersant FM

Oleg Deripaska is happy about his victory over Oleg Tinkov. The billionaire defended his honor and dignity in the Ust-Labinsky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory. The defendant was ordered to pay 20 million rubles. As the representative of the plaintiff, lawyer Alexey Melnikov, founder of Rusal, told Kommersant FM, he considered this amount to be quite large, “which one cannot help but rejoice at.” The reason for the investigation was Tinkov’s comments on social networks last year. The former banker called the metals magnate “an oligarch and a thief.”

The court found this information untrue. Initially, the plaintiff demanded compensation of 2 billion rubles. But he is satisfied with the final decision in such a unique dispute, said Deripaska’s lawyer Alexey Melnikov:

“People of this level in Russia usually do not go to court. As a rule, proceedings take place with the media. This process took quite a long time, more than a year, because Oleg Tinkov’s side resorted to all sorts of tricks. They delayed the matter and stated that the entrepreneur lived in Balashikha, although Tinkov officially confirmed that he had left Russia. There were various interesting moments, but still the case ended in a judicial act.

The court upheld the claim of Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska against Oleg Yuryevich Tinkov and Meta Platforms, the owner of the Instagram network (owned by Meta, an extremist organization banned in the Russian Federation) for the protection of honor and dignity. The reason was the publication of Tinkov himself, I don’t want to quote it verbatim. The point is that Deripaska is a bad person, and he, Tinkov, is an honest entrepreneur.

The court ordered Tinkov and Meta Platforms to remove the controversial publication, publish a refutation in the form of information about the court decision, and recovered a total of 20 million rubles from Tinkov. — 10 million rubles. as compensation for moral damage and 10 million rubles. as compensation, I emphasize the word, for non-material losses.

The Supreme Court explained that in this case it is damage to business reputation. The court also established a judicial penalty – this is a judicial penalty – in case the defendants voluntarily do not comply with the court decision. The amount of the penalty is 100 thousand rubles. from each of the defendants for each day of non-compliance with the court decision.

The amount recovered was truly significant. This is good news. The money will be used for charitable purposes.”

In March 2022, Tinkov, like many other Russian businessmen, fell under British sanctions. At the same time, the entrepreneur had already been living in London for several years. Soon the businessman criticized the Russian authorities, renounced his citizenship and sold his stake in Tinkoff Bank. As Tinkov assured, the deal was forced, and he received only 3% of the real value of his shares. In July 2023, the UK lifted sanctions against the entrepreneur.

The former banker still has the opportunity to appeal the decision on Deripaska’s claim, but even if all authorities refuse the appeal, it will not be easy to recover compensation, says Sergei Uchitel, a partner at Pen and Paper:

“The first question is, how was this dispute about the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation considered at the plaintiff’s place of residence? This is a direct violation of the law.

Such claims must be considered at the location of the defendant. In any case, we proceed from the fact that this is only a decision of the court of first instance. At a minimum, it is subject to appeal through the appellate and cassation procedures. It has not yet entered into legal force.

As for the amounts, the law and law should act not based on the category of who is better off, but on the basis of a specific violation. And if we look at these types of lawsuits, when the same largest corporations go to court to protect their business reputation, there has not yet been compensation in the tens of millions.

How can I withdraw this amount from Tinkov if he is now in Britain? It is possible that the defendant may have assets on the territory of the Russian Federation, but we don’t know – apartments, cars, whatever. Nothing prevents you from foreclosure on this property in Russia.

If nothing is found, a procedure for recognizing the decision of a Russian court on the territory of a foreign state is also provided for this. We will have to go to a foreign court to have it recognize or not recognize this decision.”

Oleg Deripaska already has seven proceedings on the protection of honor and dignity or privacy. In 2021, for example, a businessman won a case against Alexei Navalny, who was included in the list of extremists, with compensation of 1 ruble.

And one of the trials – against Nastya Rybka and her coach Alex Leslie – took place in the same Ust-Labinsk district court. Then the businessman’s claim was satisfied, but the requested amount was 1 million rubles. halved.

Ulyana Gorelova