A court in Almaty on 13 June ordered former Information Minister Altynbek Sarsenbaev to pay 1 million tenges ($7,500) in damages for defaming Khabar Agency. Khabar had initially sought 50 million tenges in damages. Sarsenbaev must also publicly retract the comments he made in a 1 October 2004 interview with the opposition newspaper \"Respublika\" in which he alleged that Khabar was part of a monopolistic media holding controlled by Darigha Nazarbaeva, daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, the Navigator website (http://www.navi.kz) reported. \"I think that the court\'s decision is connected with the upcoming presidential elections,\" Sarsenbaev, co-chairman of the unregistered opposition party Naghyz Ak Zhol, commented after the ruling. He said that if repression against opposition figures continues, \"there will be no need to export revolution [to Kazakhstan]; a revolution will take place inside the country.\" Sarsenbaev vowed to appeal the ruling. He has 15 days to do so. (RFE/RL)