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NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia Feb 6 (Reuters) – Russia’s
state-conrolled VTB bank is ready to use part of its
earnings to buy back shares from small investors who lost money
during VTB’s 2007 stock listing, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
said on Monday.

Shares in VTB, which is still 75.5 percent owned by the
government, were trading at around 7 kopecks on Monday, slightly
above half the price of 13.6 kopecks at which they were offered
to more than 100,000 Russian small investors in 2007.

“These people are not interest-holders, no-one was cheated
… but VTB’s share price has fallen because of the crisis. And
now people are asking us: let it (the shares) be bought from us
at the initial price,” Putin said.

“And VTB is ready to do that from its profit but not from
state money,” Putin said.

Last week, Putin, running in a presidential election next
month, instructed the country’s No.2 lender VTB to compensate
private investors, promising to provide “necessary resources” if
needed.

The buyback programme could cost around 15-18 billion
roubles ($500-600 million) in total, VTB’s head Andrei Kostin
said.
($1 = 30.1752 Russian roubles)

(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski; Writing by Katya Golubkova;
Editing by Andrey Ostroukh and Megan Davies)