Moscow businessman appeals ban on Vasily Lozhkin's painting

Moscow businessman Alexei Khodorkovsky appealed the court's decision, which declared the painting “The Great Beautiful Russia” by artist Alexei Kudelin (creative pseudonym Vasya Lozhkin) extremist. Lawyer Damir Gainutdinov, representing the interests of the applicant, told Vedomosti about this.

Since 2010, Khodorkovsky has exclusive rights to use the image. Last week, he learned that the Oktyabrsky District Court of Novosibirsk on January 29, 2016 granted the claim of the prosecutor of the Oktyabrsky District of Novosibirsk to citizen Roman Bykov to recognize as extremist a number of information materials published by him on the Internet, including the painting “The Great Beautiful Russia” .

The decision is illegal and should be canceled, since neither the author of the picture nor the copyright holder took part in the trial, Khodorkovsky insists in his complaint.

Khodorkovsky told Vedomosti that he is a long-time admirer of Lozhkin’s work: since 2011, he spent everything he could afford on his new paintings, and then decided to start popularizing the artist’s works by acquiring the right to use the images. “I have serious plans to produce a variety of interesting things based on his paintings,” says Khodorkovsky.

Last week it became known about the precedent of being summoned for questioning to the Investigative Committee in St. Petersburg for the republication of the painting “The Great Beautiful Russia.”