Lawsuits: Squeezing the Kremlin

Squeezing the Kremlin

California Businessman Raphael Gregorian had done what many American lawyers had said was impossible. First he sued the Soviet Union, accusing it of falsely branding him a spy in a 1984 report in Izvestia, the Soviet government newspaper, and of reneging on a medical-supplies contract. Then in June 1986 a U.S. federal court ordered Izvestia and the Soviet Union to pay Gregorian $413,000 plus interest for libel and equipment losses. The Soviets ignored the decree. Last week, armed with a subpoena, Gregorian's lawyer Gerald Kroll began impounding Izvestia property. In Chevy Chase, Md., Kroll seized a typewriter, a television set and...

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