A Moscow arbitrage court has approved oil giant Rosneft's application to increase the size of its claim against RBC Group from 3.124 billion rubles to 3.179 billion ($48 million). Rosneft is currently suing the media holding company for alleged damages to its business reputation. In addition to monetary compensation, the oil company is also seeking to force RBC to publish a retraction of the information it claims to be false.
The defendants in the case include the television channel RBC TV, "Business Press," and several journalists working for RBC's media holding company, Konstantin Bochkarev, Timofei Dziadko, Liudmila Podobedova, and Maxim Tovkaylo.
Rosneft's suit was in response to a print article in which a source is cited as claiming that Rosneft head Igor Sechin asked the government to protect Rosneft from a possible attempt by BP to increase its ownership in the company. The claim was later reported on RBC's television channel. That same day, April 11, Rosneft publicly denied the claim.
