Swiss firm muscles in on more Russian assets

A five percent stake in European aerospace giant EADS held by Russia's VEB bank has been frozen by court order, at the request of a Swiss firm in a legal battle with the Russian state.

Russian media reports have quoted a lawyer for Geneva based NOGA, saying the shares were frozen along with Russian accounts at a VEB unit earlier this week.

The EADS stake held by the bank is valued at just over a billion dollars.

NOGA claims it is owed $US 800 million by Russia's finance ministry from  an oil for food deal in the early 1990s.