Russian Neighbors Fined Over 200,000 Rubles for Defamatory Remarks in Apartment Building Chat as Supreme Court Upholds Ruling

Two participants in a shared apartment building chat have been ordered to pay more than 200,000 rubles in compensation after Russian courts, including the Supreme Court, upheld a ruling that their messages about a neighbor were defamatory.

The dispute originated from complaints about noisy tenants in one apartment. Residents raised the issue with the property owner in the building chat, after which the conversation descended into personal attacks. The residents also contacted police, but officers found no grounds for administrative action against the owner. The owner then filed a civil claim for protection of honor and dignity, submitting the chat logs, SMS messages, and recordings of telephone conversations as evidence.

A court-appointed linguistic expert concluded that some of the public statements did not contain swear words or formal insults yet included derogatory descriptions and suggestions of mental health issues. The court ruled that these remarks could not be treated as permissible evaluative opinions. Obscene language was identified in private conversations. Complaints to the police were not considered abusive, as the court found no evidence that the residents had misused their right to contact state authorities.

One defendant was ordered to pay more than 100,000 rubles and the second a slightly lower amount. When calculating the compensation, the court noted that the plaintiff had also behaved inappropriately during the conflict, but this did not exempt the defendants from liability. The decision survived review at every higher instance, including the Supreme Court.

The ruling signals that messages posted in a building chat are treated as public statements capable of damaging an identifiable person's reputation, even without explicit profanity.