Russian media tycoon Alexander Lebedev has been charged with hooliganism following a brawl with real-estate billionaire Sergei Polonsky during a TV show, the Investigative Committee said on Tuesday.
He could be jailed for up to five years if convicted.
Lebedev, a former KGB officer who owns several newspapers including The Independent and London Evening Standard, punched the fellow oligarch in a television show on September 16 after a discussion on the global economic crisis turned into name-calling.
The show got particularly heated after Polonsky accused Lebedev of spreading a rumor about a crack in the Moskva-City skyscraper his firm was building.
Lebedev claimed he had to "neutralize" Polonsky because he feared he was going to be hit first and that Polonsky had been overly aggressive during the discussion.
"In a critical situation, there is no choice. I see no reason to be hit with the first shot. I neutralized him," he wrote in his blog.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has dubbed the brawl "hooliganism."
