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“Holders of Soviet bonds first sold in Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev’s final year are getting in France what they can’t get from President Vladimir Putin: money.  The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ordered Russia last month to pay on part of the 25 trillion rubles ($785 billion), equal to almost half of Russian economic output, the government says it still owes the public from lost Soviet savings. Putin is stalling, most recently signing an order in April to halt payments on the notes until at least 2015. Now, armed with court rulings, veteran speculators are joining pensioners in seeking to cash in.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-27/brezhnev-bonds-haunt-putin-as-investors-hunt-for-785-billion.html