Hollande: Conditions for the supply of "Mistral" to Russia have not yet developed

French President Francois Hollande still does not see the conditions for the delivery of Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia. “The conditions for this are not yet met. Let's hope that this will happen one day, ”- quotes his statement after the EU summit RTL. When the issue of resolving the Ukrainian crisis “everything will fall into place”, “measures will be taken at the European level to ease the sanctions,” and France “may be part of this process,” Hollande said several hours after the Minsk summit. But such a moment, he said, has not yet come.

The first of the two helicopter carriers "Vladivostok" under the contract for 1,2 billion euros should have been delivered to Russia in mid-November, but Paris announced a delay in delivery "until further notice." At the end of January, the Ministry of Defense reported that Moscow had paid out an advance payment of about 1 billion euros and would like to receive either ships or their money. “If we are given [the ships], we know how to use them, if we are given money, we also know how to use them, and this will not affect the pace of technical re-equipment of the Navy,” Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov quoted TASS.

Source - "Ведомости«