Sergei Mironov, a Just Russia leader, has filed a libel and defamation suit against Vladimir Zhirinovsky, boss of LDPR political party, and a state-run TV channel. Mironov, who heads Just Russia faction in the parliament, is alleging that his political rival lied during pre-election debates, aired life on Rossiya-1 channel.

Zhirinovsky, who has the reputation of scandalmonger, and Mironov were invited to popular talk show, hosted by Vladimir Soloviev. Zhirinovsky claimed that Mironov had been selling seats in the upper chamber of the parliament while being the chamber’s speaker.    

Mironov have not brought any financial claims against Zhirinovsky, according to Russian Mafia (rumafia.com). In the suit he asks judges to oblige Zhirinovsky disclaim and publicly apologize for his false statements and do it on the same TV channel.

Mironov said that he would not waste time filing libel suits against Zhirinovsky if it had not been for the electoral campaign. In case he had not done that, Mironov said, his opponents would have a chance to say that Zhirinovsky had been right, because Mironov did not react to his statements.