In St. Petersburg, the first meetings of the courts on merchant Viktor Petrik’s lawsuits have been held; the latter is known for his closeness to the leader of the party "United Russia" Boris Gryzlov, as well as for his participation in the development of the budget program "Clean Water".

The first meeting was held in the Kuibyshev federal court, where Petrick filed a complaint of defamation against three different media: IA “Rosbalt”, TV channel 100TV and Federal State Unitary Enterprise “RIA Novosti”. All the three editions’ fault was the fact they had published articles by reporter of “Rosbalt” Evgeny Zubarev, or cited him.

In particular, Petrick did not like the "RIA Novosti” quoted a passage from the journal The Wall Street Journal, which quoted a phrase of Zubarev that he had studied the criminal case materials against Petrik and knew the articles on which Petrik had been sentenced.

Viktor Petrik reports in the lawsuit in the Kuibyshev court that he has Ph.D in technical sciences, was awarded three medals n.a. P.A. Kapitsa, Order of Patriarchate of Russia n.a. Saint Daniel, as well as the Jubilee Medal n.a. SU Marshal Zhukov. He cites the information about himself to prove he is an accomplished man, not a fraudster, as the journalists represented him, according to the plaintiff. To compensate moral injury Petrik requires recovering 1 million rubles plus court costs from Evgeny Zubarev, ZAO “Information Agency “Rosbalt”, Federal State Unitary Enterprise "RIA Novosti" and "TV Kupol" each.

Three hours later, the first meeting of the arbitral tribunal St. Petersburg took place and the case on protection of business reputation of OOO "Holding "Golden Formula", owned by Victor Petrik came on. The lawsuit alleges that the publication in the Russian media have undermined the business of filters sales. There were letters from customers and dealers attached, who allegedly have significantly reduced the purchase of the product in the form of water filters, produced under control of Petrik.

The suit in the Court of Arbitration is addressed to an individual, reporter of IA “Rosbalt” Evgeny Zubarev; Victor Petrik wants to obtain 21 million rubles from him for the lost profits. In addition to IA “Rosbalt”, the lawsuit contains claims on ZAO “Publishing House "Novaya Gazeta", and ZAO “Publishing House "Komsomolskaya Pravda". In total, Viktor Petrik wants to get 21 million 162 thousand 700 rubles for moral injury, as well as to recover legal fees from all the defendants.

During the meetings, the judge offered the plaintiff to clarify his claims, and the plaintiff agreed. Thus, it is assumed that an action to protect the honor and dignity will be brought directly to The Wall Street Journal instead of RIA Novosti.