‘RT’ files lawsuit against Alexey Navalny over anti-corruption investigations

The state-owned television channel RT has filed a lawsuit against opposition politician Alexey Navalny, as well as Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), and the editors of the online publication Znak.com. 

On Twitter, Navalny wrote that the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the non-profit organization “TV-Novosti,” which is managed by RT. 

A RT representative later told RBC that the lawsuit was filed over a recent Anti-Corruption Foundation investigation, which claimed that the television channel was involved in falsifying view counts on its videos and buying comments on Youtube. 

RT filed the lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court, however it was left without a motion due to a number of reported problems with the claim itself, including a lack of necessary information about the defendants. The Court dismissed the case until July 6.

In addition to accusing RT of faking view counts and buying comments on Youtube, recent FBK investigations have also reported that RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, along with her husband and relatives, earned 46 million rubles (currently more than $673,000) on the romantic comedy “The Crimean Bridge. Made with Love!” Znak.com published news on both of these investigations, as did a number of other outlets.