MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Finance Ministry said on Thursday that it had asked the London court handling a lawsuit over Ukraine's $3 billion (2 billion pounds) debt to Russia to issue an expedited judgment ordering Kiev to repay the debt.
The ministry said that Ukraine had included in its defence a "series of political" arguments that do not relate to the case.
"In fact, the arguments used by the debtor are no more than a part of Ukraine's tactics to confuse the issue as much as possible," the ministry said in a statement.
It added that the ruling could come as soon as early 2017.