Ukrainian businessman Volodymyr Halanternyk and Russian-Uzbek entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov tried to achieve the take down of several articles released by NV in 2018 and 2025 through courts, NV chief editor Vitaliy Sych reported in a Facebook post.
According to Sych, both lawsuits ended without satisfying the businessmen’s claims.
The first disputed article is “Odesa’s Daddy. How Volodymyr Halanternyk, declared suspect by Prosecutor General, became the city’s unofficial ‘master’” (2018), and the second one is titled “Yachts, tanks, propaganda, and bribes. How Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov took control of world fencing for years” (2025).
As told by Vitaliy Sych, NV journalist Kristina Berdynskykh released an investigation into the influence structure in Odesa in 2018. The article stated that business interests associated with Volodymyr Halanternyk, who, according to local journalists and activists, was considered an influential player in various areas from the Pryvoz market to residential and commercial real estate, existed on par with the city government. The article cited data from the Italian police dating back to 1998, which suggested that Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov could have been associated with a criminal group that other persons involved in the investigation had alleged ties to.
Halanternyk filed a lawsuit with the court demanding the removal of the article, however, as Sych reported, his representatives did not appear at the court hearings and the case remained untried.
“But he didn’t stop at that. Recently, I started receiving emails from a law firm with offices in New York, Miami, and the UK, asking me to take the article down from the website. I assume that the articles come up in a Google search by potential partners and this creates reputational discomfort for the man featured in it. The city of Odesa deserves a better ‘business climate,’” said Vitaliy Sych.
Sych added that Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov has also filed a lawsuit against NV in the Hamburg court. His lawyers had several arguments as to why the case should be considered in the German jurisdiction of Hamburg city.
“The Hamburg court rejected all these arguments and declined to try the case. The court imposed all expenses on the plaintiff, that is, Usmanov. The Russian oligarch did not like the NV article about how he used – let’s put it carefully now – his influence and the fencing federations in the Global South that only existed on paper and were dependent on him to take control of global fencing and bring Russian athletes back to the world stage,” Sych wrote, adding a screenshot of the court ruling to the post.
He said this is just one instance of Russians “torpedoing” international organisations to promote their interests.
“Usmanov wanted us to take an article down from the website as well, and we had to refuse him, too. In Russia, Usmanov owns [the news outlet] Kommersant; such issues with unpleasant articles are resolved quickly there. But not in Ukraine. Since both men did not want anyone to see these articles, I think they are worthy of being seen by as many people as possible,” wrote Vitaly Sych, linking the articles in question in the comments.
He noted that the only man who sued NV and won in all these years was Andriy Portnov.
“Because he was both a player and the referee on the judicial field. No judge dared to pass a ruling against him. But we know how he ended up. Thank you to all readers, listeners, and viewers of NV,” wrote Vitaly Sych.