Penza, 3 March 2016. PenzaNews. Sergei Padalkin, head of the press office of the regional Communist Party committee, made a brief post in his Twitter account related to the Tuzov’s case, under which the founding body of PenzaNews agency seeks to recover compensation off the individual businessman for 74 facts of illegal use of copyrighted work.

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“Neighborhood fool shows himself in Arbitration Court today,” the head of the regional party committee press service wrote at night of Tuesday, March 2, following the note with a link to the PenzaNews article “Tuzov claims not owning ‘Alexander Tuzov’s Blog’ in court statement.”

Sergei Padalkin had already mentioned Tuzov’s case to his subscribers in the social network around two weeks ago. In particular, on February 16, he posted a reaction to the news that Alexander Tuzov had failed to negotiate the out-of-court settlement with the president of “VolgaInterMedia” Ivan Malikov.

“More and more happy over my colleagues at PenzaNews. Finally someone in Penza who can tell the ugly man who thinks himself as analyst & journalist extraordinaire to know his place,” he had written on his VK.com page.

As PenzaNews reported earlier, in January 2016, “VolgaInterMedia” initiated a case in the Penza region Arbitration Court against the individual businessman Alexander Tuzov on recovery of compensation of 3 million rubles overall for illegal use of copyrighted photos on two websites.

The first preliminary court hearing took place on February 8. Even though the accused party had been addressed a hearing summons containing the date and time of the hearing, and a request of arbitration, neither he nor his representative appeared in the court.

At the same time, the complainant presented a package of documents in confirmation of illegal use of copyrighted work by the accused party.

As a result, the court decided to postpone the preliminary hearing to March 2.

Alexander Tuzov petitioned to familiarize with materials of the case on February 9.

On the evening of the same day, the PenzaNews editor-in-chief Pavel Polosion, who earlier suggested that Alexander Tuzov was likely to play victim, received a text message on his personal mobile phone with an offer to “settle the issue out of court.”

On February 15, the president of “VolgaInterMedia” Ivan Malikov met with Alexander Tuzov on the latter’s initiative, and offered him to settle the issue out of court for half the amount, with an option to pay it in installments; however, the Alexander Tuzov declined, saying he does not have the money.

On the next day, Ivan Malikov expressed an opinion that the failure of out-of-court settlement talks forced the administrator of “Alexander Tuzov’s Blog” to delete his LiveJournal account. The president of “VolgaInterMedia” said he welcomes the decision, although it will not help the blogger in question escape the liability.

In late February, the complainant updated the claims to Alexander Tuzov and listed 74 facts of illegal use of photos instead of 60, for the same expected compensation amount of 3 million rubles.

During the preliminary court session on March 2, Alexander Tuzov claimed that he is not the owner of “Alexander Tuzov’s Blog” in LiveJournal, which had been removed in February 2016. The aforementioned blog contained provocative information that concerned such people as some of the high-ranking officials of the Penza region.

The next preliminary court session is scheduled for April 6.