France to unfreeze Russian bank accounts

A court in Paris has ruled that Russian bank accounts frozen in connection with a dispute launched by a Swiss trading company must be released.

The accounts were frozen earlier this month at the request of the Swiss-based company, Noga, which said it was owed millions of dollars by the Russian authorities.

Reports say the court has ruled that money in the accounts did not belong to the Russian Federation.

Russia had protested against the account freeze. Earlier, France impounded the Russian tall ship, the Sedov, also at the request of the same company.

The ship was later released.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service