Rosneft demanded three billion rubles from RBC

Rosneft in court demanded 3.124 billion rubles from RBC as compensation for reputational damage.

The oil company's lawsuit concerns an article entitled “Sechin asked the government to protect Rosneft from BP,” published on April 11, 2016. This material claims that the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, asked the Russian government to prevent BP from collecting a blocking stake in the Russian company.

Rosneft, in response to the publication, stated that the information presented in the article “is false and represents the unfounded fantasies of journalists or their so-called sources.”

A representative of Rosneft said at a court hearing on September 23 that the RBC article discredits the company. “A wide range of people <...> may have an unfounded negative opinion that Sechin’s main goal <...> is not to increase the investment attractiveness and transparency of the company, but to maintain some control over the company,” said a company representative.

The defendants in the Rosneft lawsuit are journalists Timofey Dzyadko, Lyudmila Podobedova and Maxim Tovkaylo (authors of the article about the company), as well as BusinessPress LLC (publisher of the RBC newspaper). The RBC-TV channel and its presenter Konstantin Bochkarev are listed as co-defendants.

RBC rejects Rosneft's claims.

“The information was provided to us on condition of anonymity by several citizens, so, unfortunately, we cannot apply to call them as witnesses. But nevertheless, we do not recognize the fact of dissemination of false information,” RBC’s lawyer stated in court.

RNS

• In 2016, the management of the RBC holding changed. In May, editor-in-chief Elizaveta Osetinskaya and website editor-in-chief Roman Badanin, as well as editor-in-chief of the RBC newspaper Maxim Solyus, left the company. In July, Elizaveta Golikova and Igor Trosnikov, who had worked at TASS since 2013, became the heads of the united editorial office of RBC.
• It is assumed that the reason for the change in the leadership of RBC was the publication of journalistic investigations - primarily materials about family members and entourage of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin officially denied speculation about pressure on RBC.