Russia's state debt agent Vneshekonombank (VEB) hopes to complete verification of the remaining $50-70 million of Soviet-era trade debt by the end of 2004 or start of 2005, a VEB official said on Wednesday.
"Verification is powering ahead at full speed," VEB Chairman Vladimir Dmitriyev told a news conference. "It will be settled at the end of this year or the start of next."
Verification is a process in which the debtor and creditor make sure their figures for the debt match. Soviet debts have changed hands many times since their issue, making them hard to check.
VEB previously had a June 1 deadline for verification of the debt, also called Foreign Trade Obligations, which represents deals between Soviet foreign trade firms and foreign banks and companies which extended loans without government guarantees.
Verification is usually followed by a restructuring, which in many cases means issuing Eurobonds.
At the end of 2002, after verification of $1.28 billion of FTO debt, Russia swapped it for $1.28 billion of 2010 and 2030 Eurobonds. At the start of 2004, Russia also finished verifying its debt to the International Investment Bank and part of debt to the International Bank for Economic Co-operation. This was followed by an issue of a total $899.8 million worth of Eurobonds.
Dmitriyev also said Russia's total foreign debt fell to $116 billion from $121 billion at the start of the year.
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