Today Moscow’s Liublinsky district court began hearing the defamation suit brought by businessman Vladlen Stepanov against the blogger Aleksei Navalny. One of Aleksei Navalny's lawyers, Ramil Akhmetgaliev, legal analyst with the Agora Human Rights Association, spoke with the Open Information Agency correspondent. 

Today Vladlen Stepanov came to the court with a new lawyer. He had dismissed his previous lawyer because, the businessman said, he had not lived up to his expectations, the Open Information Agency correspondent reports. The position taken by the claimant has also changed.  Now he is asking that a refutation be published of his alleged involvement in the theft of 5,5 billion roubles, and demands a refutation of six statements made in a video published on Aleksei Navalny’s blog. These phrases concern the family of Stepanov, the transfer of sums of money, the purchase of property and Stepanov’s spouse, from whom, the businessman stated today, he divorced at the beginning of the 1990s. [Read more]