Following the breakup of the former USSR, the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) requested the return of approximately 100 million lbs of gold deposited with the Bank of England 50 years earlier during the brief period when they enjoyed independence between occupations by Germany and the USSR. Where the USSR had invested in factories in particular republics, in the name of all member republics, dissolution of the USSR raises considerable difficulties concerning the pattern of ownership equity, if any, in such enterprises.