A COMPANY run by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, purportedly close to President Vladimir Putin, yesterday said he was pursuing a libel settlement against opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Prigozhin’s Concord catering company said in a statement it was seeking €840,000 (RM4.2 million) damages as it looks to “defend its honour, dignity and commercial reputation.

“The total claims amount to 77 million roubles (more than RM4.2 million),” Concord stated in response to a request for information from the Interfax news agency.

Prigozhin, 59, is demanding damages following an August legal settlement against Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation after it accused his catering firm of supplying sub-standard food to schools and not meeting sanitary standards.

Concord also provides catering services to the Kremlin, earning Prigozhin the nickname of “Putin’s chef”.

A Moscow court in October ordered Navalny, currently in Germany where he was taken for treatment following an alleged poisoning in August while on an investigation in Siberia, to pay damages.

A thorn in the flesh of Putin and his government, Navalny has promised to return to his homeland.

Russian authorities on Tuesday opened a criminal probe into Navalny, alleging he used more than 356 million roubles of donations to his organisations for personal purposes, including holidays abroad.

The investigative committee, which probes into major crimes, said in a statement that the money was part of more than 588 million roubles Navalny had raised “exclusively” for his non-profit organisations, including the Anti-Corruption Fund.

The charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in jail. – AFP, December 31, 2020.