Gorbachev had called Vladimir Resin, the head of the Moscow city government construction department, a "shining example of a corrupt government official" in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda.
A Moscow municipal court Thursday fined Gorbachev 1 million rubles ($325) for the comment, and ordered the newspaper to print a retraction of the charge, the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.
The former Communist Party general secretary failed to appear at the first trial and was fined 30 rubles (1 cent). At the second trial, Gorbachev sent a letter saying he was quoting material published in another publication, the Novaya Yezhednevnaya Gazeta.
Gorbachev will not pay the fine and plans to appeal the decision, said Georgy Ostroumov, a spokesman for the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow.
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