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The dispute between rival camps within Russia’s filmmaker’s union arose following the election of 83-year-old director Marlen Khutsiev as its president over Nikita Mikhalkov’s chosen candidate, Mikhail Porechenkov.   Mikhalkov, who headed the union for 11 years, claimed that the meeting at which Khutsiev was elected did not follow correct procedure.   The Moscow court accepted his argument and ruled that a second congress should take place on 1^st April 2009.

 Viktor Matizen, the chairmen of the country’s guild of film critics and a leading member of the anti-Mikhalkov camp, told RIA Novosti, the Russian state news agency, that he would appeal the decision:

‘This is not the end of the matter,’ he said.   ‘We shall challenge the decision because the law cannot stray too far from concepts of natural justice.

 ‘The union has always had rules for its congresses and when Mikhalkov was [elected] under these rules, he accepted them. When the union did not act according to his wishes he created a scandal.’

 Mikhalkov was in sombre mood despite the victory, ‘I take no pleasure nor feel a sense of victory in the court's decision,’ he said. ‘This business had taken up three months of my life, dealing with a monstrous lie. Everything said about the festival, the real estate [Mikhalkov’s opponent’s accused him of attempting to gain control of the union’s real estate], is untrue and I shall address those issues at the new congress in April. It is necessary to put the record straight.’ [ADD]