PAYMENT OF COMPENSATIONS TO RELATIVES OF BODENSEE AIR CRASH TO BE SPED UP

DAVOS (Switzerland), January 25 (RIA Novosti corr. Yekaterina Andrianova) - Switzerland promises to speed up the payment of compensations to the relatives of the victims of the Russian Tu-154 crash over the Bodensee, said Russian Vice Prime Minister, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.

He met with Swiss Chief of the Federal Department of Finance, Hans-Rudolf Merz in Davos, where the World Economic Forum is coming to an end.

"The Swiss minister said his government will do everything possible to speed up the process of payment of compensations," Kudrin said after the meeting.

In December 2003, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also called on the German and Swiss governments to speed up the process of compensation payment.

According to the Swiss press, the talk is about some 100,000-300,000 Swiss francs.

In July 2002, a Tu-154 and cargo Boeing-747 collided in Germany's airspace. As a result of the crash, 69 people, mostly children, on board the Russian liner, as well as two pilots from the Boeing, died.