Flamboyant politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky found himself mired in legal troubles Wednesday after he accused Mayor Yury Luzhkov, City Hall and the Moscow City Duma of corruption.
Always the outspoken politician, Zhirinovsky has promised to sue back.
Luzhkov filed a defamation lawsuit seeking 5 million rubles ($175,000) from Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, and Rossia state television in Moscow’s Savyolovsky District Court on Tuesday.
In the filing, Luzhkov said he took issue with Zhirinovsky’s claims of corruption among Moscow city officials in reports aired on Rossia’s “Vesti” news program Oct. 24 and 25.
The court has yet to schedule a date to consider the lawsuit.
But Zhirinovsky has fired back that he would sue Luzhkov for 10 times the amount that the mayor was seeking in damages. “We will file a criminal case, not for 5 million rubles but for 50 million rubles,” or $1.7 million, Zhirinovsky’s spokesman Alexei Pasyutin said, Interfax reported.
The City Duma, meanwhile, is preparing its own defamation lawsuit against Zhirinovsky for accusing the legislature of corruption in some of his speeches, City Duma Speaker Vladimir Platonov told reporters Wednesday.
It was not clear how much money in damages the City Duma might seek.
Calls to City Duma officials and Zhirinovsky’s office went unanswered Wednesday.
Luzhkov and the City Duma have come under fire after United Russia swept the Oct. 11 elections, taking 32 of the legislature’s 35 seats. The Communists won the other three.
Luzhkov has filed a series of lawsuits against opposition leaders recently. Late last month, a Moscow court ordered Right Cause party co-leader Leonid Gozman to pay 50,000 rubles ($1,720) to Luzhkov for corruption comments aired on Ren-TV. The television channel was ordered to pay 20,000 rubles ($690).
Gozman said Wednesday that he had appealed the ruling and filed a countersuit for 642 million rubles, which he estimated to be the monthly combined income of Luzhkov and his wife, Yelena Baturina. He said the court would hold a preliminary hearing Nov. 19.
Luzhkov and Baturina sued opposition politician Boris Nemtsov last month over a report that claimed that Baturina’s company Inteko owed its financial success to her marriage to Luzhkov.