Penza, 15 February 2016. PenzaNews. Ivan Malikov, president of “VolgaInterMedia,” announced he offered the businessman Alexander Tuzov, who is currently facing a lawsuit worth 3 million rubles for illegal use of 60 items of copyright work, to settle the issue out of court for half the amount, but the latter declined, saying he does not have the money.

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“Tuzov called me a week ago and asked for a meeting, which took place today. He came to the office of ‘PenzaNews’ agency, and we finally introduced ourselves to each other personally – did not contact before. The talk, which lasted about 20 minutes, resulted in the understanding that he understands the demands overall, but the settlement amount is too big for him. I offered to cut the sum by a half, with a reasonable plan to pay in installments, which would feature in the settlement agreement. Tuzov began complaining that he does not have the money, the car he uses is mortgaged, and overall he is ready to pay only 2,000 rubles per each item of copyright work,” the head of the media company told PenzaNews agency after the meeting.

According to Ivan Malikov, Alexander Tuzov also told him about a lawsuit he plans to initiate against the advertising agency “Express” – founding company of the online news source “Penza-Press” – to recover the money from them and pay out on the “VolgaInterMedia” case.

“He mentioned he received a call from Vasily Kuzmich [Bochkarev, Penza region governor from 1998 to 25 May 2015] yesterday on the situation over ‘Penza-Press’ – as you know, his daughter Natalya Vasilyevna [Bochkareva] is the founder of the advertising agency ‘Express.’ Tuzov laughted loudly, and said: ‘Well, I need something to pay with after all.’ I made it clear that I am not interested in his lawsuit, but in our lawsuit, and once again outlined the terms of settling it out of court. In return, Tuzov said twice: ‘Will report you.’ I do not know where, what and to whom is going to report anything,” Ivan Malikov said, adding that he sees no need to politicize the process.

“If anyone wants to wave around any ‘loud’ names, big titles and make the case politicized in any manner, they can go ahead. After all, I cannot tell anyone, like Tuzov, not to search for any underlying rationale. But it really does not exist here. It is the money, not the rationale, that needs to be found,” he concluded.