MOSCOW, February 7 - RAPSI. The Simonovsky District Court of Moscow will hear on March 7 the lawsuit filed by the Samara Region government against self-exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky and his partner Yuli Dubov to recover $33 million in losses, the court's spokesman Oleg Shassayev told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Monday.

"The court completed pre-trial preparations on Monday and decided to set the hearing for March 7. The hearing will be public," Shassayev said.

Earlier, the Moscow Regional Court ordered Berezovsky to pay almost 8.5 million rubles ($279,770) for the Samara government as compensation for inflation losses in the case over embezzling 58 million rubles ($1.9 million) that belonged to LogoVAZ.

The Krasnogorsk City Court's sentence came into effect in September 2009. The court sentenced Berezovsky, who resides in the UK, to 13 years in prison in absentia for embezzling 58 million rubles ($1.9 million) of LogoVAZ funds. Dubov was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Investigators maintain that Berezovsky organized in 1994 signing of a contract between AvtoVAZ and LogoVAZ to supply the latter with 20,000 Lada cars. However, the cars were never paid.

Berezovsky lives in the UK where he was granted political asylum, although several criminal cases have been opened against him in Russia. The Russian authorities have sent several requests for Berezovsky's extradition. The UK has rejected the requests.