MOSCOW, November 25 - RAPSI. A court dropped a lawsuit filed by entrepreneur Viktor Baturin to recover $10.8 million in wage arrears from Inteco, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) reported from the court on Friday.

Inteco is a leading diversified development company in Russia. The company is owned by Yelena Baturina, Russia's richest woman and the wife of former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Viktor and Yelena founded the company in 1991 on principles of parity.

In 2005, when the company gained major profits their relations deteriorated.

The division of assets was accompanied with litigations. In February 2007 Viktor and Yelena signed an amicable agreement. Some 99-percent in Inteco remained with Yelena. Viktor got unencumbered assets worth no less than $500 million.

The court satisfied the appeal by the company's representatives, who stated that the lawsuit cannot be heard since the decision in Baturin's similar claims has already been made.

The parties' representatives refused to give any comments to the media.

Yekaterina Ilyina, the court's press secretary, earlier told RAPSI that from January 1, 2005, to December 26, 2005, the company put Baturin on a payroll of a little more than 337,493 million rubles ($10.71 million). However, he was not paid the entire amount, thus requested the company to award him wage arrears.