PARIS Russia has finished paying France $400 million in compensation for tsarist investment bonds, but the bond holders said this was a mere fraction of what Moscow owes them.
The French Finance Ministry said on Friday Russia had just paid it the last $50m installment of the package agreed three years ago between Paris and Moscow.
It said the government would order by the end of this year the transfer of money to the registered holders, who own or inherited tsarist bonds issued between 1886 and the 1917 Soviet revolution.
The ministry said compensation would be paid only to French holders, and offshore financial institutions would be excluded in order to avoid speculation.
It said 99 percent of those who filed claims were individuals and 90 percent of those owned less than 50 bonds.
However the French Association of Russian Bond Holders (AFPER) said it was unhappy with the partial repayment deal.
"It is the end of a first stage, but the story is not over," AFPER spokesman Pierre de Pontbriand told Reuters.
"Russia is paying only a minimal sum compared to what it owes us, about one per cent. We remain creditors, and we want this to be internationally recognized and dealt with," he said.
The AFPER, which claims to represent 15,000 bond owners, says it has filed 2,244 cases at the European Court of Human Rights, and is preparing 1,000 more.
The association has failed in legal action before French courts to seize Russian property on French soil.
Russia complied with the compensation agreement although French courts have frozen its diplomatic accounts and other government assets in France at the request of Swiss trading company Noga which claims Moscow owes it $63 million.
(Reuter)