Russian Prime Minister MikhailKasyanov signed a decree on Saturday to restructure Russia'sSoviet-era commercial debt.
The debt is the last category of Soviet borrowing to gounredeemed or unreformed by the Russian government, which hasbeen planning to restructure it into international bonds.
The text of the decree will be published on Monday.
Government officials have said the decree had to be signedby November 18 to make it possible to issue the requisite bondsby the end of the year.