The Moscow City Court made a decision in favor of the journalist Andrei Zakharov, to whom the chairman of the board of directors of the Tsargrad group of companies, Konstantin Malofeev, sued the court. The reason for the lawsuit was the book of Zakharov, “Crypt. Like cipher -pants, programmers and crooks constrained Russia with blockchain. ”

The publication was released in May 2023 with a circulation of 5,000 copies. In his book, Zakharov claims that Malofeev can be involved in the predation of cryptocurrencies and collapse of the crypto-tank BTC-E/WEX. In connection with this summer, Malofeev sent a lawsuit against the publishing house Individuum and Andrei Zakharov, recognized by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation by a foreign agent.

Initially, Malofeev demanded that the court recognize several fragments of the book as false and ordered to destroy all the non -distributed circulation. However, in October 2024, the Savelovsky court of Moscow partially satisfied Malofeev’s demand, believing that only one phrase from the book defends the reputation of the businessman. The court did not take a ban on the sale of books. This decision did not suit any of the parties – they both sent appeals.

Now the Moscow City Court has made the final decision, supporting the author and the publishing house. The verdict of the court states that Andrei Zakharov acted in good faith. The journalist provided readers with his own point of view on the events important for the public – the work of the crypto officer, its collapse and subsequent criminal case. The author’s opinion, based on the analysis of publicly available data, is his personal subjective assessment, to which he has a full right. Personal judgments are considered an expression of an individual position of the author, and they cannot be verified for compliance with reality in the framework of the case of protection of reputation, therefore they are not subject to refutation. In the actions of Zakharov, the court did not see the abuse of freedom of speech.

Last year, the Savelovsky District Court awarded 18 billion rubles of customers of the collapsed WEX of the Singapore company World Exchange Services, formalized as a legal entity of the crypto -tank. This company is part of structures controlled by Malofeev.