MOSCOW, January 26 (RAPSI) – Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin has filed a defamation suit against The New York Times, RAPSI reported on Monday from Moscow's Presnensky District Court.

The suit was lodged in connection with an article which was published in The New York Times on April 27. It alleged that Yakunin 'violated the law', according to his representative.

“We are not asking for compensation. We have requested that the court obliges the defendant to refute the information it published as being as being contrary to the facts. We want the retraction to be published in Russia, the United States, Germany and Austria,” Yakunin's lawyer Alexei Melnikov said.

The first hearing is set for February 19.

Yakunin was appointed president of Russian Railways in June 2005. In August 2014, his three-year contract was prolonged.