Friday 31 July 2015

Russia Mistral: France 'agrees warship compensation'

Vladivostok warship in Saint-Nazaire

France has agreed to pay compensation to Russia for cancelling the sale of two warships, a Russian official says.

France stopped the sale after the outbreak of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is accused of backing separatist rebels.
The Mistral contract was worth €1.2bn (£843m; $1.3bn). Russia made an advance payment of about €840m.
The first of two helicopter carriers - the Vladivostok - was supposed to be delivered to Russia in November 2014.
"The negotiations are completely finished, everything has already been decided, both the time-frame and the amount," said Vladimir Kozhin, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Western sanctions have been ratcheted up against Russia since March 2014, when the Ukrainian conflict erupted, with Russia's annexation of Crimea.
"I hope that in the very near future an agreement will be signed on breaking the contract, and then the sum that France will pay us will be announced," Mr Kozhin was quoted as saying.
He is an adviser to President Putin for military technology co-operation.
Sources close to the talks, quoted by Russia's Kommersant daily, say France will compensate Russia to the tune of €1.16bn.
That sum includes the amount that Russia has already spent on special training for 400 sailors, on port infrastructure in Vladivostok for the two warships and on developing four prototype Ка-52К helicopters.
The compensation deal was clinched last week at talks between Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and French Defence Secretary-General Louis Gautier, Kommersant reports.
The Mistral contract dates back to a June 2011 agreement reached under the previous French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

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