Russia Gives Up on Mistral Deal

Published: May 26, 2015

SOURCE TASS

KAZAN – Following the failed deal on the supplies to Russia of French Mistral-class helicopter carries, Russia plans building its own carriers, but of a different class and there is no aim of copying the French analogues, a senior military industrial official said on Tuesday.

Photo: Reuters/Stephane Mahe

“We have such vessels in our plans, but they will be built in line with a different class as we have a different ideology of paratroopers landing. There is no set task of copying Mistrals,” Russian Government’s Military Industrial Commission Deputy Chairman Oleg Bochkaryov told journalists, TASS reports.
Bochkaryov added that Russia was not discussing with France the supplies of the promised vessels and the only issue currently at talks with French partners was the compensation for the severed contract.
“Russia will not take them, it is a matter of fact, and there is only one discussion currently underway and it concerns the sum of the compensation, which Russia should be reimbursed with,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Russian Security Council’s Deputy Secretary Yevgeny Lukyanov said that the country’s defense capabilities would be no way affected by France’s failure to supply Mistral helicopter carriers under a bilateral deal.
According to assessments of the French weekly Le Point, annulment of the deal to supply Mistrals to Russia may cost France from €2 billion to €5 billion.