© Photo Georgi Alburov (@alburov). 



On 16 September the hearing of the defamation suit brought by entrepreneur Vladlen Stepanov against the blogger Aleksei Navalny continued at Moscow’s Liublinsky district court. 

“Vladlen Stepanov claims that allegedly Aleksei Navalny personally affirmed that Stepanov was personally involved in the theft of budgetary funds and accused him of committing theft and fraud,” said Ramil Akhmetgaliev, one of Navalny’s lawyers and an associate of the Agora Human Rights Centre, after the court hearing. “On the other hand we contend that, on his LiveJournal page, Navalny published his opinions about video and other materials posted on the website ‘The Untouchables’. Navalny is not the author of this video and therefore no claims can be made against him on this account." [Read more]