Foreign financiers complaining about the legal wars they will launch to recover bad debts

in Russia rarely mean much. The expense of a lawsuit (1)_____ the satisfaction; the chances of getting any money are (2)_____.

Yet Noga, a company owned by Nessim Gaon, a 78-year-old businessman (3)_____ in Geneva, has been suing the Russian government since 1993, attempting to (4)_____ Russian assets abroad. At Mr. Gaon's request, bailiffs last week very nearly (5)_____ two of Russia's most advanced warplanes at the Paris air (6)_____. The organisers (7)_____ off the Russian authorities, and the planes flew home, just (8)_____ time. (9)_____ near-misses include a sail-training ship, the Sedov, nuclear-waste shipments, and the president's plane.

Mr. Gaon, whose previous business partners include regimes in Nigeria and Sudan, put an (10)_____ clause in his original export deals: Russia must abandon its sovereign immunity. An arbitration court in Stockholm has found in his (11)_____, so far, to the (12)_____ of $110 million, out of a total (13)_____ of $420 million. Other courts (14)_____ the world have let him have a (15)_____ at any Russian assets (16)_____ reach.

The odd thing is (17)_____ Russia. now awash with cash, does not simply pay up. Mr. Gaon says he was told at one point that a 10% (18)_____ on the debt to someone high up in the finance ministry would solve things. (19)_____ off Mr. Gaon costs much in legal fees. Not accepting international judgments sits ill with the current Kremlin line (20)_____ the rule of law. Mr. Gaon says his next move will be to seize Russia's embassy in Paris.

A．outdoes

B．outperform

C．outshine

D．outweighs