Russian Judge Dismisses Defamation Suit Against Paper

Yevgeny Dzhugashvili has lost his defamation suit against the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The plaintiff, a descendant of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, had claimed that the paper libeled his grandfather by calling him a “bloodthirsty cannibal.” The Moscow district judge presiding over the case dismissed the action after taking testimony, including evidence which appears in school textbooks. The plaintiff has several days to appeal to a higher court. Read more here.