Irina Borogan

Affiliated media: Agentura.Ru, Journalist

Incident date: October 17, 2023

Attack type:

• prosecution for violation of the honour, dignity and business reputation; violation of privacy following civil lawsuit

Who attacked: Non-authorities

Source: Facebook pages of Alexey Kozlov and Andrey Soldatov

Location: Germany, Hamburg

Additional information:

Businessman Alexey Kozlov has filed a lawsuit in a Hamburg court against investigative journalists Andrey Soldatov and Irina Borogan, co-authors of the book The Compatriots, published in 2019. According to the plaintiff, the book, which focuses on the work of Soviet and Russian security services with political emigrants, contains false information about his biography. According to Soldatov, Kozlov is not satisfied with the way the book describes «the role that former and current state security and intelligence officers played in his career as a businessman». However, the claims relate to minor factual inaccuracies. The lawsuit was filed in the summer of 2023. On October 10, the court imposed a temporary restraining order on the distribution of the book in print and electronic form on the territory of Germany until the case is considered on the merits.