France will deliver Mistrals or refund payment for ships--- Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart
Francois Hollande have agreed that France will either deliver Mistral
helicopter carriers to Russia or refund payment made for them, Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
"No specific dates were announced," Peskov told
reporters answering a question whether Putin and Hollande discussed the
timeframe for solving the Mistral dispute at their meeting in Yerevan, Armenia,
last week, reports Tass.
The Russian presidential spokesman confirmed that the issue
was discussed in line with what the French president announced during a press
conference in Paris on April 22.
"In fact, this stance was confirmed. The position is
very simple — either the goods or the sum that has been already paid in
advance. In general, it was confirmed that the sides share this stance,"
he said.
At their April 24 meeting in Yerevan, the Russian and French
leaders discussed the Mistral issue. "The Mistrals were also discussed and
in this case, there are no problems here," Peskov said.
After the talks with Putin, Hollande said no final decision
on the Mistral ships was taken. France will either deliver the Mistrals, but
there is no such decision yet. In other case, Paris will compensate Russia for
its expenses and the amount of this compensation will be discussed later.
"For the moment, no decision has been taken,"
Hollande said.
The €1.12 billion contract for the construction of two
Mistral-type helicopter carriers for the Russian Navy was signed in June 2011.
Under the contract, Russia was expected to receive the first
of the two warships, the Vladivostok, in the autumn of 2014. However, Paris
suspended the ship’s handover to Russia at the very last moment over Moscow’s
stance on developments in neighboring Ukraine.
It was planned that the second ship dubbed the Sevastopol
would be handed over to Russia in the second half of 2015. But the deal was
suspended like in the case with the first Mistral ship.
Hollande said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko on April 22 in Paris that there were yet no
conditions for the Mistral delivery to Russia.
Moscow has stated several times that it will agree to both
options: the delivery of Mistrals or the prepayment.
Le Journal du Dimanche reported Sunday that it has been
actually decided that "Paris will return Russia €800 million paid earlier
and compensate for other expenses on the project in the amount of another €300
million."
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