reporter: dmitry sukharev works for transparency international in st. petersburg. he is heading to court. vladimir litvinenko, one of the most powerful men in russia, is suing the organization. dmitry: litvinenko wins every case. reporter: always? really? dmitry: yes, of course. >> the rector of the st. petersburg state mining university. reporter: litvinenko heads the oldest technical university in russia. it's a very prestigious job, and it is alleged he got it in 1994 thanks to vladimir putin, who was at the time deputy mayor of st. petersburg. it's also alleged litvinenko helped putin with his doctoral dissertation. he is now a manager of the president's bid to be re-elected on march the 18th. president putin: it is nice to know that we have engineering universities of such high quality in russia. reporter: transparency claimed that litvinenko misappropriated funds. he is now suing for defamation the anti-corruption ngo and some journalists who reported on the allegations. he's demanding damages totaling close to a million euros. we wanted to film the whole hear