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Scuffles as Ukrainians queue for Soviet-era bank payouts

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KIEV, January 11 (RIA Novosti) - Scuffles have been reported across Ukraine as Sberbank customers, who lost their savings after the collapse of the Soviet Union, queued Friday to receive compensation, Russian television Vesti channel said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko promised on appointment last year that from January 11, 2008 all former customers of Sberbank U.S.S.R., over 200,000 people, who lost their savings would receive $200 compensation.

The television channel reported work at hundreds of branches of Ukraine's Sberbank had been paralyzed due to the huge volume of people.

Sberbank of Ukraine appealed on Friday in a statement to all those seeking payouts to show restraint and be polite to the elderly.

On Thursday the bank's press service said it had already received the first tranche of $39.2 million out of the total sum of $1.2 billion from the country's budget which would be used to compensate savers' losses.

The bank also said that the time frame for receiving compensation is not restricted and those, who did not get the money on January 11, can do so at a later date.

Tymoshenko promised to recompense each depositor $200 regardless of the amount they lost. If the losses were higher than $200, she said, the remaining sum would be repaid at a later date or could be used to pay public utility bills, education or other services.

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