Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska has filed a lawsuit against jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, his team, and several foreign entities over an investigative report they produced about alleged corruption links between the tycoon and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Navalny wrote on Telegram on August 17 that Deripaska demanded the removal of the investigation from the Internet and an official refuting of the investigation's conclusion that he makes payments to Lavrov on a regular basis and financially supports his "second family."
The investigation, called Yachts, Bribes, and A Mistress. What Minister Lavrov Hides, was issued last fall.
Deripaska is also demanding Navalny remove from the Internet a photo of him and Lavrov taken in Japan, and all mentions about his alleged ties with Paul Manafort, who chaired former U.S. President Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.
Deripaska, who has been known for his close ties with President Vladimir Putin, is among the Russian oligarchs who have been hit by Western sanctions over the Kremlin's unprovoked war in Ukraine.
"I once again call on the United States, European Union, and Great Britain to impose really effective sanctions against these thieves and war enablers that would not allow them to escape [the sanctions] through basic tricks," Navalny's Telegram post said.
Navalny associate Maria Pevchikh said Deripaska also demanded Navalny's team record a video statement saying that the investigation "does not reflect reality," warning that each day such a video statement is delayed will cost her and her colleague Georgy Alburov 50,000 rubles ($882).
Deripaska's lawsuit also targets The Insider investigative group, DMG Media company, which owns The Daily Mail newspaper in the United Kingdom, and the United States-based Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, which issues the Newlines information digest.