Russian Tycoon Alisher Usmanov Score Legal Victory Against Western Media
The case involved a 2025 article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) titled ‘On behalf of the Kremlin’, which alleged that Usmanov used his wealth “in the interests or at the direction of the Kremlin,” acted as an informal representative of Russian state interests abroad, and influenced editorial policy at the Kommersant newspaper after acquiring it in 2006. The piece also referenced accusations from the late opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who had claimed that Usmanov engaged in illegal financial dealings with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Previously, a Moscow court ordered the removal of these allegations in 2017 following Usmanov’s defamation suit. Navalny died in prison in 2024 while serving a sentence for extremism.
On January 23, the Hamburg Regional Court ruled that the FAZ article contained defamatory and unverified claims and prohibited the outlet from further spreading them. The ruling carries potential penalties of up to €250,000 ($300,000) per violation, with possible prison sentences for repeated offenses.
Usmanov’s legal team highlighted that this marks the first instance in Europe where a court explicitly blocked the publication of Navalny’s claims against him. They emphasized that the accusations had previously influenced EU sanctions imposed on Usmanov in early 2022, which he has challenged in European courts, arguing that they were based on unverified media reports.
Usmanov’s lawyer, Joachim Steinhoefel, described the FAZ article as “a cocktail of falsehoods and discredited narratives” and stated that the court’s decision demonstrates that the EU sanctions rely on “nothing more than an accumulation of defamatory, groundless and thus illegal allegations.”
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