Paris and Moscow close to Mistral Warships compensation deal - watch on - uatoday.tv
Paris likely to pay Moscow between 800 and 1.1 billion euros
According to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, the government's of Russia and France are on the verge of
agreeing a financial compensation package for two Mistral helicopter carrier warships which
Paris refused to hand over because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
According to RIA Novosti sources close to the deal, France has previously offered approximately 800 million euros compensation but Moscow is reportedly insisting it must be 1.1 billion euros.
The final compensation figure has not been revealed but the report stated the compensation deal will be completed in July.
Russian military officials claimed in June that the contract between the Russian and French defence ministries provided for the transfer of the sophisticated technology involved in the construction and operation of the vessels; that France had already handed over
the blueprints for the Mistrals and that Moscow would build it's own versions based on the French Mistral design.
Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior researcher at Harvard and expert on Russian military modernization said the transfer of such technology was of "the biggest concern for NATO".
The ships, the most advanced of their kind in the world, would constitute a powerful new military tool for President Putin and enable Russia's navy to conduct major land invasions.
However designing and constructing the new vessels will take Russia several years.