Moscow's troubled Chara Bank, which stopped all payments last October after the ruble's dramatic "Black Tuesday" crash, has started to pay back small depositors, a spokesman for the bank said.


The bank official, who declined to be named, said the bank will pay out to clients whose deposits do not exceed 1 million rubles ($220). An official said the number of such clients was about 15,000.


But clients with hard-currency accounts will only be paid in rubles at the rate fixed at the moment of opening the account, he said. This could mean considerable losses for those who took out fixed-term accounts while inflation remained high.


Chara Bank, which gained a reputation before its collapse last year as the place for intellectuals and the political elite to invest their money, owes millions of dollars to around 70,000 depositors.


Investors, who include Foreign Ministry officials, cinema and television celebrities and mass-media bosses, were attracted by a hefty average 15 percent monthly interest on a $3,000 deposit.


After its collapse, bank president Vladimir Rachuk was found hanged in his office. The new team at the bank, headed by president Vladimir Fadeyev, with Central Bank officials, has been trying to work out a stabilization program with limited success.