MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev is to carry out community service in a village 250 kilometers outside Moscow as punishment for brawling with a fellow tycoon on a television show in 2011.
Novaya Gazeta, a strongly government-critical newspaper partly owned by the businessman, said Monday that the 150-hour term of community service would be carried out in the Tula Region, where Lebedev is officially registered as living.
A Moscow district court in July found Lebedev, who formerly had a stake in the country’s top air carrier, guilty of battery for punching realty developer Sergei Polonsky during the filming of a talk show on the NTV television channel.
Moscow City Court upheld the sentence in September.
Lebedev, a former KGB officer, has always said he was acting in self-defense after being provoked by Polonsky.
Lebedev owns several British newspapers, including The Independent, and Kremlin-critical Novaya Gazeta newspaper. He also until recently held a 4.5 percent stake in Aeroflot.
