LONDON, January 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is ready to write off Afghanistan's $10-billion debt to the former Soviet Union in a bid to promote the country's development, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said Monday.

Storchak, who is in London as part of a Russian delegation at an international conference on Afghanistan, said Afghanistan did not recognize its debt to Russia so Moscow intended to take up the issue with the Paris Club of creditor nations.