Russian government is pleased with Paris court ruling on Noga Co.

The Russian government is pleased with the Paris cassation court's ruling, which disallowed the Swiss-based Noga Company to seek the arrest of Russia's federal property on French territory, Aleksei Gorshkov, head of the governmental information board, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

"We treat the Paris court's ruling as unbiased and logical, and believe it will help finally disallow Noga's ungrounded claims against the Russian Federation," he said.

The company accuses the Russian government of the failure to pay the penal sum for the disruption of food supplies in 1991.

In 1994, Noga Company filed a suit in the Stockholm Arbitration Court, accusing the Russian government of the failure to fulfill its contractual obligations. In February 1997, the Stockholm court ruled that the Russian government should pay $23 million in penalty to the company. The sum has grown to $65-68 million since then.

The company made several attempts to arrest Russian aircraft at air shows in France.

The bank accounts of Russian representatives, including the Russian embassy, in France were frozen in an earlier effort to make Russia pay. Russia's Sedov ship was arrested in July 2000 when it arrived at Brest for a marine show. A court then removed the attachment and set a penalty for Noga Company.

Independent auditors said Noga Company supplied foodstuffs to Russia amounting to $570 million, not the $1.4 billion it claims. Experts insist that Noga Company owes Russia money, not visa versa. Russia's counter-deliveries of energy carriers were worth $120 million more.