In a court

Russian State Duma deputy Oleg Mikheev intends to file a lawsuit against the governor of the Volgograd region Nikolai Maksyuta. The plaintiff states that on the air of several regional radio stations, the head of the region accused him of a raider seizure of the Rotor stadium. Mr. Maksyuta does not comment on the situation, but the regional administration is confident that their leader is right.

State Duma deputy of the “A Just Russia” faction Oleg Mikheev intends to file a lawsuit for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation against the head of the administration of the Volgograd region Nikolai Maksyuta. The planned application deadline is July 6. The Volgograd regional branch of the party reported this yesterday.

The reason for the lawsuit was the governor’s speech on June 25 on the radio stations “New Wave”, “Russian Radio - Volgograd” and “Echo of Moscow” (in Volgograd), in which the head of the region assessed the situation around the central stadium of Volgograd. We would like to remind you that on June 19, investigators from the Volgograd Municipal Department of Internal Affairs conducted searches in the offices of the club and at the place of residence of Rotor vice-presidents Ivan Mikhailyuk and Olga Gerasimuk - the police suspect that in 2008, a simplified taxation system was unlawfully applied at Rotor, resulting in more than 3.8 million rubles were not paid. Oleg Mikheev claims that investigators, without the sanction of the Prosecutor General, also conducted searches in his public reception room, which is located in the office of FC Rotor. The reason for these searches was an appeal from Nikolai Maksyuta, who asked the police to “understand” the situation around the club.

The lawsuit quotes the text of Mr. Maksyuta’s comment to radio stations: “Oleg Mikheev needs to first think and tell all the people why he acquired Rotor... that this is his business - he is acquiring it for several million, there are 20 or whatever, the entire complex, mortgaging it through an offshore some company. Let him tell people, and then you will ask me why I am dissatisfied with such a raider takeover of the Rotor stadium. Therefore, we need to think about it. If he had offered, and I had offered, and given 51% to the region and said, let’s restore this stadium together, there would be no questions.” Oleg Mikheev states that Nikolai Maksyuta thereby accused him of “raider takeover,” and this “is not true.” The deputy “intends to demand a refutation and 200 thousand rubles as compensation for moral damage,” and if the claim is won, the court decision, according to the deputy’s lawyers, “could serve as the basis for opening a criminal case against the governor under the article “Slander.”

Nikolai Maksyuta refrained from commenting. The head of the press service of the regional administration, Olga Trofimova, told Kommersant that “if the governor described the situation this way, then he had reasons for it.” “He is the head of the region and has more complete information about what is really happening,” added Ms. Trofimova.

It is worth noting that Mr. Mikheev has already applied to various courts several dozen times over the past two years. Moreover, as a rule, the media are defendants in claims of a deputy or his relatives. The deputy is also suing the Kommersant publishing house, demanding to recover more than 6.7 billion rubles from it. Oleg Mikheev estimated the material damage from the publication in the Volgograd edition of Kommersant at this amount.

Maria Churakova

Deputy Mikheev organizes a meeting with the governor