Russian catering mogul Evgeny Prigozhin wins another defamation lawsuit against Alexey Navalny, along with almost $7,000

Alexey Navalny is locked away for the next two and a half years, but catering mogul Evgeny Prigozhin’s litigation against the opposition politician drags on. A court in Moscow has granted another of Prigozhin’s defamation claims, at least in part, awarding the businessman 500,000 rubles ($6,710).

The actual case records haven’t been published, but spokespeople for Prigozhin announced last October that he was suing Navalny for a tweet that called him a “crook.” According to the court’s new ruling, Navalny is apparently ordered to delete his comments and issue a public apology.

In August 2020, Prigozhin bought roughly 90 million rubles ($1.2 million) in compensation owed by Navalny and his team of anti-corruption activists, awarded to a food production plant by courts for another supposed defamation offense. 

Who is Evgeny Prigozhin? He’s a Russian business tycoon with major state contracts in catering and food production, as well as rumored assets in the private military industry and mass media market. Best known as “Vladimir Putin’s chef,” thanks to his reportedly close ties to the president, and his involvement with the “St. Petersburg troll factory,” Prigozhin has also been accused of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.