The Chita court rejected a nationalist's claim against a journalist

On May 3, 2006, the Central District Court of Chita dismissed Alexander Polupoltinnykh, member of the board of the Trans-Baikal regional branch of the Union of the Russian People (SRN), in a civil lawsuit against Andrey Kopteev, a journalist from the regional weekly Extra.

The representative of the Chita "Black Hundreds" (A. Polupoltinnykh) tried to recover 10 thousand rubles from a well-known journalist in the region for publishing an article on the pages of the newspaper "Extra", in which A. Kopteev expressed indignation at the activities in Transbaikalia of an organization similar to the RNC, "inciting national hatred ", as well as bewilderment over the fact that A. Polupoltinnykh, an employee of the Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Chita Region, is a member of such an organization.

In his last article on the topic of the Black Hundreds, published in the issue of "Extra" for April 5, 2006, A. Kopteev spoke to the press organ of the RNC - the newspaper "Russian Transbaikalia", which, according to the conclusion of the commission of the Chita Pedagogical University, "deliberately announced itself, as an instrument of propaganda of nationalist ideas" , "takes an active anti-Jewish position" , which "leads to inciting ethnic hatred in society and the state" . The commission was convened at the direction of the rector's office after it turned out that several university professors were members of the NRC. The Commission, in its conclusion, draws attention to the fact that "Russian Transbaikalia" "is unofficially distributed among the departments of universities, as well as in the university lyceum, which requires strict suppression" .

During the court session, A. Polupoltinnykh's lawyer tried to agree to a settlement, but the journalist's lawyer refused this proposal.

After the journalists of the newspaper "Extra" appealed to the governor of the Chita region, the regional administration sent a request to the prosecutor's office, which conducted an inspection and found serious violations in the first issue of "Russian Transbaikalia". In particular, the article "Russia with a knife in the back" was recognized as incorrect. As a result of the audit, several members of the editorial board of "Russian Transbaikalia" were brought to administrative responsibility.

Sources

• Chita "Black Hundreds" lost the trial to a journalist // IA Regnum. 2006. May 4.
• The court refused to punish the journalist on the suit of the Black Hundreds in uniform // Polit.ru. 2006. May 4.