In April in accordance with legislation of LithuanianRepublicI together with my friends from FORUM.msk started the procedure of legal prosecution of magazine “Ekstra” and its editors Vald Vasilyauskas and Vald Kvyadaras who were involved in libel. That time following the procedure we directed to «Ekstra» the demand to refute lies published on its pages.
However the editorial staff of the magazine didn’t publish any refutation during the month that was given. Due to this fact our lawyer Romualdos Balberjus will go the court of Vilnius already on Monday to bring a suit containing the request to magazine “Ekstra” to compensate moral damage at the rate of 10.000 lits (more than 3.000 dollars USA).
The suit for compensation of financial loses as a result of slanderous publication will be our next step. That’ll be a matter of more considerable sums. Let’s explain the matter of our lawsuit with «Ekstra». At that I will talk not about me and my problems but about my friends.
«Ekstra» - as well as other several sites – registered in different countries accused editors of FORUM.msk Anton Surikov, Ruslan Saidov and Vladimir Philin in being once or still being employees of Secret Intelligence Service. I don’t see anything bad in the fact of belonging to the service.
However Surikov, Saidov and Philin never were colleagues of the Intelligence Service or any other special service – the fact they announced in mass-media not once. They are – well-known publicists and businessmen at the same time, they don’t hide their type of activity which is legal and clear. This is – consultation, export-import operations, investments, operations on the stock exchanges and the like. At this business of Surikov, Saidov and Philin is spreading to the USA, Brasil, China, countries of the Near Eastand at last to the European countries.
Naturally false statements about their belonging to special services create in the countries mentioned serious obstacles for their activities and «Ekstra» will have to answer for it in the court. Even more scandalous is its absurd and at the same time disgraceful are accusations in my address and the address of my friends in smuggling of weapons and drugs, in “grey” deliveries to China, Iran and other countries of nuclear and missile technologies, etc
This is a lie from the very beginning to the end and we declared about it in the mass-media for several times. We are not even going to prove that it’s not true. We simply announce that all these – is slander. Presumption of innocence existing in jural society doesn’t demand any proofs from the victim of slander. On the contrary that will be the task of «Ekstra» magazine and of its editors.
They would have to cough up a lot due to the fact that they can’t prove their words. Only the chief editor of FORUM.msk – Anatoly Baranov – who lost important bargain with Lithuanian partners because of publications brings a suit against this edition for the sum with a lot of zeros.
Yes, the main thing is, of course, not money but the mere fact that with the help of decree of the juridical authority of Lithuania – one of the member-countries of the European Unity – all libels in our address not only from the pages of «Ekstra» but practically from the part of the whole number of sites in the internet will be declared unfounded. We have no doubts in it. The date of the trial will be fixed and announced during the nearest two weeks.
