A Moscow court on Thursday awarded Federal Agency for Youth Affairs head Vasily Yakemenko and his brother Boris 150,000 rubles ($4,850) in damages in a defamation lawsuit, Interfax reported.
Ekho Moskvy radio and Novaya Gazeta newspaper were ordered to pay 60,000 rubles each, and journalist Viktor Shenderovich 10,000 rubles, for a series of reports that linked the two brothers to compromising videos targeting opposition activists. Novaya Gazeta reporters who wrote about the Yakemenkos will pay another 20,000 rubles. The three defendants promised to appeal.
Moscow’s Perovsky District Court cleared a fourth defendant, journalist Alexander Podrabinek.
The Yakemenko brothers had sued for a combined 4.15 million rubles ($134,200).
(MT)
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