New Delhi, June 14 -- he is trying to stop France from quietly rewriting the rules of what Russia is permitted to own on French soil.

Oransky told RIA Novosti on Sunday that Russia is pursuing "systematic work through the diplomatic channel" to protect its state property in France and to block any revision of existing bilateral agreements. The admission was brief and unadorned, but it points to a sustained legal and diplomatic pressure campaign that has gone largely unreported in Western media. France, he said, has made "regular attempts" to revisit both existing treaties and their terms - a formulation that suggests the dispute is neither new nor resolved.

Russian Ambassador to France Alexei Meshkov said in February that French authori...