ST.-PETERSBURG, July 30 - RAPSI. On Monday the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Commercial Court postponed until August 16 its preliminary hearing in the Heineken Joint Breweries' lawsuit. The beer company seeks to invalidate the antimonopoly service's decision which found the Three Bears (Tri Medvedya) beer advertisement featuring football player Andrei Arshavin inappropriate, the Supreme Commercial Court reports on its website.

The reasons for the delay have yet to be disclosed.

Heineken has filed an appeal against the St. Petersburg Antimonopoly Service's May 18 ruling.

According to the service's website, the company is in breach of advertising law because it advertised its beer in the St. Petersburg metro with a cartoon image of Arshavin and the slogan "A real chance to play with Arshavin?"

The service found the ad inappropriate, as it contains "images of people and animals".

Heineken was established in 1863. It has been operating in Russia as Heineken Joint Breweries since February 2002.