YouTube, Meduza and Proekt received a demand to remove the investigation into the luxurious life of Dmitry Medvedev’s son

For almost a year and a half now, Vitaly, the son of former Energy Minister Igor Yusufov, has been pushing for the removal of Project’s investigation into the luxurious life of Dmitry Medvedev’s son Ilya through the courts. The plaintiff wants the story removed from the websites of Project and Meduza, which wrote the news about the investigation, as well as from YouTube, where the video version of the investigation was posted. However, the Project itself has only learnt about the case now. The reason for this is that in his lawsuit the plaintiff labelled Project’s publisher as WfP, an acronym that has nothing to do with Project; the summons only reached the editorial office 1.5 years later.

Details. The summons, which Project received in mid-February, states that WfP, YouTube and the online edition of Meduza are all summoned to court. It also specifies the place to which it is sent — Kalkofnsvegur. This is the name of a street in Reykjavík, named after a lime kiln that stood there in the olden days.

• According to the text of the summons, the company named WfP based on Kalkofnsvegur Street in Reykjavik, as well as YouTube and Meduza, are all invited to the Moscow City Court on 4 March 2024 on the lawsuit filed by Yusufov V.I. The summons also specified that this would be an appeal hearing.

• The question of what mysterious company hides behind the acronym WfP was answered by the portal of Moscow’s courts of general jurisdiction, where the decision of the court of original jurisdiction was posted. It follows from the motivation part of the decision that the plaintiff used the three letters WfP to refer to Project’s publisher.

• The lawsuit was filed by Vitaly Yusufov, son of former Energy Minister and Gazprom board member Igor Yusufov. In the lawsuit, which Yusufov Jr. filed with Moscow’s Khamovnichesky Court in November 2022, he demanded that WfP remove the investigation from Project’s website, Google LLC remove the video version of the publication from YouTube, and Meduza remove the news story about the investigation from its website. The plaintiff also demanded that Project and Meduza publish the resolution part of the court’s decision. He justified this demand by the fact that in his opinion the investigation contained unreliable and defamatory information.

• The text that Yusufov is seeking to have removed says that his family has become the holder of the Medvedevs’ secret business and assets. These assets included the luxury yacht Universe, several cottages on Rublyovka and possibly a mansion in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Some of these assets were used by Ilya Medvedev, son of the former Russian president (you can read more about this in Russian on Project’s website or watch the YouTube video with English subtitles)

• In August 2023, the court denied the plaintiff’s claim. The reasoning part of the decision states that the webpage with the Project’s story is «missing» (the media is blocked in Russia) and its printed text cannot be accepted by the court. In addition, the court found no evidence that the legal entity brought to court to represent Project was indeed the author or distributor of Project’s articles.

• Google LLC was recognised by the court as an improper defendant in the lawsuit, as the video that the plaintiff demanded to be removed was posted by a YouTube user.

• The plaintiff dropped his claims against SIA Medusa Project during the trial. The court decision does not explain why this happened. However, at the time of receiving the summons, the article on Project’s investigation was no longer on Medusa’s website. The Wayback Machine service last saved a copy of this article in October 2022. In a conversation with Agentstvo, Ivan Kolpakov, editor-in-chief of Meduza, suggested that there had been a technical glitch. After Agentstvo’s appeal, the article was returned to Meduza’s website.

• The decision of the court of original jurisdiction was appealed by the plaintiff. The first hearing of the appeal court is scheduled for 4 March.

Context. Despite their close ties to one of Russia’s leading war hawks, Igor and Vitaly Yusufov have only been subject to Ukrainian sanctions. In July 2023, the US imposed sanctions against the Energy Foundation created by Igor Yusufov. Judging by the SPARK database, it is now undergoing liquidation.