State arms company sues top newspaper for libel

The federal company Rosoboronexport has filed a defamation suit against one of Russia's leading daily newspapers and a businessman it interviewed in November. The lawsuit was filed on Friday but the date for a court hearing has yet to be set.

In an interview with the Kommersant newspaper on November 30, Oleg Shvartsman said that Russia's state military supplier is involved in illegal reprivatisation of companies across the country.

Rosoboronexport denied it had any business with Shvartsman or the financial industrial group he heads.

Later the businessman said Kommersant tampered with his comments, but the paper insists it has a verified text and audio records of the interview.

The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Andrey Vasilyev, showed RT a pre-print copy of the interview bearing Shvartsman’s signature on every page.