The Hamburg Regional Court upheld the claim of billionaire Alisher Usmanov against the American version of Forbes magazine because of an article dedicated to him. RBC reports this with reference to the text of the decision.
We are talking about a selection about Russian businessmen, published in February 2022 shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The article was titled «Meet Putin's oligarchs who are likely to be sanctioned by Biden over Ukraine.» It contained brief biographies of Usmanov, Roman Abramovich and Leonid Mikhelson, who were not under sanctions at that time, and information about their connections with President Vladimir Putin.
Alisher Usmanov disputed several phrases, including the following sentence: “Usmanov regularly acted as a front for Putin and solved his business problems, the expert says.” According to RBC, Forbes representatives in court did not disclose on whose words they were based, and did not provide sufficient examples of this.
The billionaire's defense pointed out that the European Union, in justifying sanctions against Usmanov, used the same wording. However, the EU and Forbes provided different evidence for this assertion.
Thus, Forbes recalled Usmanov’s purchase in 2008 of a stake in Megafon, which belonged to the IPOC fund. The authorities of the British Virgin Islands named the former Minister of Communications Leonid Reiman as the beneficiary of the fund, he himself denied this.
The European Union referred to the FinCEN investigation that Usmanov’s company made transfers to Putin’s advisor Valentin Yumashev in 2006-2008. The justification for the sanctions also mentioned the FBK investigation about Dmitry Medvedev: the billionaire transferred the mansion on Rublyovka to the foundation of a fellow student of the politician.
As a result, according to RBC, the Hamburg court prohibited Forbes from spreading the words that Usmanov was a “cover” for Putin and that the businessman bought out Reiman’s share. In August 2023, the same court ordered the Austrian newspaper Kurier to remove claims that Usmanov was “Putin’s favorite oligarch.”