MOSCOW, October 24 (RAPSI) – Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny has filed an appeal against a ruling in a defamation dispute with the Foundation for support of socially relevant government projects (Sotzgosproject), the spokesperson of Moscow’s Lyublinsky District Court Lyudmila Morozova told RAPSI on Tuesday.

The lawsuit filed by Sotzgosproject was granted in September. The court held that Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation must retract information stating that businessman Alisher Usmanov gave a bribe to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev by gifting the latter’s charity foundation. In addition, the defendants were also ordered to retract claims stating that the plaintiff was involved in a criminal scheme and that it is not conducting actual charity.

Also, the defendants are to delete fragments of published materials containing false and defamatory information.

The lawsuit was lodged in relation to a movie published on Navalny’s Youtube channel. According to the plaintiff, information distributed by the defendants is false and defames the plaintiff’s reputation. In particular, Sotzgosproject contests several assertions including one stating that “oligarch Usmanov gave a bribe to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev by gifting the latter’s charity foundation 5 billion rubles (about $87.5 million).”