SOURCE:
July 31, 2015
A top Kremlin aide says Russia and France have reached an agreement on reimbursement for two Mistral warships that Russia purchased for $1.3 billion but whose delivery is on hold to protest Moscow's actions in Ukraine.
Vladimir Kozhin, President Vladimir Putin's adviser for military and technical cooperation, confirmed on July 31 that a refund deal was reached. However, he did not reveal the figure, saying only that the amount will be announced when the contract is cancelled.
'The negotiations are completely finished, everything has already been decided, both the time frame and the amount,' Kozhin told state news agency RIA Novosti.
There was no immediate response from Paris.
Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported earlier this week that France had offered to terminate the contract and pay back about $794 million provided France can re-export the warships.
French President Fancois Hollande said on July 27 that he would decide 'in the coming weeks' whether or not to scrap the contract to supply the two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to Russia.
Russia's state-owned TASS news agency reports that Russian technical specialists will visit the French port of Nantes-St. Nazaire to remove Russian military equipment from the helicopter-carrying ships. The news agency said the equipment was mainly communications equipment that would have been used for directing helicopter operations.
The delivery of the two warships was put on hold by Paris in September 2014 in response to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The contract, which was signed in 2011 was meant to be the biggest arms sale ever to Russia by a NATO country, with the first of the ships had been due to be delivered to Moscow in 2014, the second in 2015.
Extra Expenses
However, Moscow announced in May that it had decided not to take the ships in response to France's putting the deal on hold. TASS quoted Oleg Bochkaryov, the deputy head of the Military-Industrial Commission, as saying on May 26 'Russia won't take them, that's an accomplished fact.'
'Now there is only one discussion -- about the sum of money that should be returned to Russia.'
Bochkaryov added that Russia planned to construct its own similar vessels but not copy the Mistral, adding that Moscow had a 'slightly different ideology for the endeavor of amphibious assault.'
In April, Putin insisted that the French side reimburse Moscow 'all expenses' if the contract were to be terminated. He said that included not just the purchase price also expenses for training, the building of a new dock for the ships, and even transportation and housing of the crew.
He also downplayed the importance of the warships, saying that Russia had ordered them mostly to help the French shipyard which produces them.
However, the loss may be felt keenly by the Russian navy because the original deal not only was to provide two Mistral ships built in France but also gave Moscow the option to build two more Mistral carriers in Russian naval shipyards. In this way the deal could have helped to modernize Russia's own naval construction industry.
Paris had set as its conditions for delivering the ships a cease-fire and a political settlement in Ukraine. When Hollande announced delivery had been put on hold in September, he said the contract to supply the vessels was neither cancelled nor suspended but that the conditions for delivering the first ship, due to be handed over the following month, did not exist.
France had come under strong public pressure from its European partners and the United States to abandon the deal, which was signed under former President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2011.
With reporting by AP, AFP, Bloomberg, TASS, and RIA Novosti
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/kremlin-aide-says-refund- deal-reached-for-undelivered-mistral/27162439.html
Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Bochkaryov told journalists that Russia plans to build its own Mistral-class helicopter carriers to replace the ones not delivered by France. “We have these types of ships planned…but we will build them a bit differently. We’re not going to blatantly copy the [French] Mistral [design] right out,” Bochkaryov said.
According to Kommersant, Bochkaryov was rebuked by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin because Russia has never officially given up on buying the two warships from France and Bochkaryov had never taken part in the negotiations on their delivery.
Russia is capable of building its own equivalent of Mistral-class helicopter carrier equipped with nuclear power engines as Moscow is aware of the design of the French-made ship, deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma's Committee on Industry Vladimir Gutenev told RIA Novosti 27 May 2015. "It will not be difficult from a technical point of view to build something like Mistral especially since we have gained access to the drawing list of the [French] helicopter carriers as a number of our weapons systems are adapted to the military characteristics of these ships," Gutenev said.
Should the Russian Armed Forces need to build a ship similar to the French-made Mistral, it will be a "ship similar in size, but with a nuclear power engine," which will be equipped with "air defense and anti-submarine defense systems."
France suspended “until further notice” the delivery of a warship to Russia because of the Ukraine crisis. The office of French President Francois Hollande said in a statement 25 November 2014 that the "current situation in eastern Ukraine still does not allow for the delivery” of the first Mistral-class helicopter carrier built for Russia.
French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said 01 January 2015 that his country would deliver two warships ordered by Russia only if there were concrete signs of lasting peace in Ukraine. "There needs to be ... a process of ceasefire that is respected and a political roadmap that would lead to the return of peace and calm," Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio station. "I see that efforts are being made, but as long as they are neither tangible nor verifiable, we cannot make a decision," he added.
Moscow initially had no plans to file claims against France over Hollande's decision to put the Mistral warship deal on hold, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said. “No, we are not planning to file any [claims] at the moment,” he said. “Everything is specified in the contract, and we will act under that contract, just like all civilized people do.”
The defense capability of Russia and the Russian Navy will not suffer as a result of France’s decision to put the delivery of the first Mistral-class helicopter carrier on hold, Adm. Vladimir Komoedov, chairman of the defense committee of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said 03 September 2014. “This will not undermine our combat readiness because this ‘tin can’ will require a lot of getting used to, and will most likely come without a control system; and we don’t really need a helicopter carrier vessel,” Adm. Komoedov told RIA Novosti. Adm. Komoedov noted that the ship was actually not crucial for the Russian Navy, since Russia had all the necessary technology to build vessels not in any way inferior to their foreign equivalents, especially French ones.
Vladivostok was floated out in October 2013. The second Mistral-class amphibious assault ship built in France under contract with Russia was floated out 20 November 2014. The helicopter carrier, named the Sevastopol, left its dry dock in the French port city of Saint-Nazaire before just a few onlookers.
An article in Le Point weekly magazine in May 2015 stated that if Paris falls back on its promise to give the two vessels to Moscow, the French government could end up having to pay an overall cost of up to €5 billion ($5.7 billion), if it does not fulfill its contractual obligations. “Instead of bringing the French ship building cooperation DCNS a profit of €1.2 billion and those involved in the construction €980 million, the cancellation of the deal could cost France between €2 billion and €5 billion,” the article stated.
The magazine said that talks are ongoing between the respective French and Russian parties, although, “significant differences in regards to the amount of compensation exist.” The publication adds that “France is now looking to return Russia less than the €890 million that Moscow has already paid” for the vessels.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin ruled out allowing Paris to sell the Mistral warships to a third party without Moscow’s go-ahead. “Without our permission they can’t sell anything,” he said. Rogozin added he had already explained the situation to the French, while Russia has an end-user certificate for the stern parts of the vessels.
The stern parts of the helicopter carriers were built at a shipyard in St. Petersburg before being moved to France for further assembly, he explained. France will also be unable to use the Mistral vessels as part of their fleet because the warships were built to meet the Russian Navy’s specifications, Rogozin also stressed.
Kremlin Aide Says Refund Deal Reached For Undelivered Mistral Warships
A top Kremlin aide says Russia and France have reached an agreement on reimbursement for two Mistral warships that Russia purchased for $1.3 billion but whose delivery is on hold to protest Moscow's actions in Ukraine.
Vladimir Kozhin, President Vladimir Putin's adviser for military and technical cooperation, confirmed on July 31 that a refund deal was reached. However, he did not reveal the figure, saying only that the amount will be announced when the contract is cancelled.
'The negotiations are completely finished, everything has already been decided, both the time frame and the amount,' Kozhin told state news agency RIA Novosti.
There was no immediate response from Paris.
Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported earlier this week that France had offered to terminate the contract and pay back about $794 million provided France can re-export the warships.
French President Fancois Hollande said on July 27 that he would decide 'in the coming weeks' whether or not to scrap the contract to supply the two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to Russia.
Russia's state-owned TASS news agency reports that Russian technical specialists will visit the French port of Nantes-St. Nazaire to remove Russian military equipment from the helicopter-carrying ships. The news agency said the equipment was mainly communications equipment that would have been used for directing helicopter operations.
The delivery of the two warships was put on hold by Paris in September 2014 in response to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The contract, which was signed in 2011 was meant to be the biggest arms sale ever to Russia by a NATO country, with the first of the ships had been due to be delivered to Moscow in 2014, the second in 2015.
Extra Expenses
However, Moscow announced in May that it had decided not to take the ships in response to France's putting the deal on hold. TASS quoted Oleg Bochkaryov, the deputy head of the Military-Industrial Commission, as saying on May 26 'Russia won't take them, that's an accomplished fact.'
'Now there is only one discussion -- about the sum of money that should be returned to Russia.'
Bochkaryov added that Russia planned to construct its own similar vessels but not copy the Mistral, adding that Moscow had a 'slightly different ideology for the endeavor of amphibious assault.'
In April, Putin insisted that the French side reimburse Moscow 'all expenses' if the contract were to be terminated. He said that included not just the purchase price also expenses for training, the building of a new dock for the ships, and even transportation and housing of the crew.
He also downplayed the importance of the warships, saying that Russia had ordered them mostly to help the French shipyard which produces them.
However, the loss may be felt keenly by the Russian navy because the original deal not only was to provide two Mistral ships built in France but also gave Moscow the option to build two more Mistral carriers in Russian naval shipyards. In this way the deal could have helped to modernize Russia's own naval construction industry.
Paris had set as its conditions for delivering the ships a cease-fire and a political settlement in Ukraine. When Hollande announced delivery had been put on hold in September, he said the contract to supply the vessels was neither cancelled nor suspended but that the conditions for delivering the first ship, due to be handed over the following month, did not exist.
France had come under strong public pressure from its European partners and the United States to abandon the deal, which was signed under former President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2011.
With reporting by AP, AFP, Bloomberg, TASS, and RIA Novosti
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/kremlin-aide-says-refund- deal-reached-for-undelivered-mistral/27162439.html
Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Further Reading
Mistral Class Amphibious Assault Ship
Moscow finally gave up on the Mistral deal. Now Russia and France will dicuss only the sum that Paris should pay Russia for the failed contract. During the negotiations on the Mistral deal Russia and France have discussed only one question — the sum of the compensation. "We switch the conversation to business — give us our money back… We're now discussing just one thing — the exact sum of money France owes Russia," Oleg Bochkaryov, a deputy chairman of the Russian Military Industrial Complex said 26 May 2015.Bochkaryov told journalists that Russia plans to build its own Mistral-class helicopter carriers to replace the ones not delivered by France. “We have these types of ships planned…but we will build them a bit differently. We’re not going to blatantly copy the [French] Mistral [design] right out,” Bochkaryov said.
According to Kommersant, Bochkaryov was rebuked by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin because Russia has never officially given up on buying the two warships from France and Bochkaryov had never taken part in the negotiations on their delivery.
Russia is capable of building its own equivalent of Mistral-class helicopter carrier equipped with nuclear power engines as Moscow is aware of the design of the French-made ship, deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma's Committee on Industry Vladimir Gutenev told RIA Novosti 27 May 2015. "It will not be difficult from a technical point of view to build something like Mistral especially since we have gained access to the drawing list of the [French] helicopter carriers as a number of our weapons systems are adapted to the military characteristics of these ships," Gutenev said.
Should the Russian Armed Forces need to build a ship similar to the French-made Mistral, it will be a "ship similar in size, but with a nuclear power engine," which will be equipped with "air defense and anti-submarine defense systems."
France suspended “until further notice” the delivery of a warship to Russia because of the Ukraine crisis. The office of French President Francois Hollande said in a statement 25 November 2014 that the "current situation in eastern Ukraine still does not allow for the delivery” of the first Mistral-class helicopter carrier built for Russia.
French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said 01 January 2015 that his country would deliver two warships ordered by Russia only if there were concrete signs of lasting peace in Ukraine. "There needs to be ... a process of ceasefire that is respected and a political roadmap that would lead to the return of peace and calm," Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio station. "I see that efforts are being made, but as long as they are neither tangible nor verifiable, we cannot make a decision," he added.
Moscow initially had no plans to file claims against France over Hollande's decision to put the Mistral warship deal on hold, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said. “No, we are not planning to file any [claims] at the moment,” he said. “Everything is specified in the contract, and we will act under that contract, just like all civilized people do.”
The defense capability of Russia and the Russian Navy will not suffer as a result of France’s decision to put the delivery of the first Mistral-class helicopter carrier on hold, Adm. Vladimir Komoedov, chairman of the defense committee of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said 03 September 2014. “This will not undermine our combat readiness because this ‘tin can’ will require a lot of getting used to, and will most likely come without a control system; and we don’t really need a helicopter carrier vessel,” Adm. Komoedov told RIA Novosti. Adm. Komoedov noted that the ship was actually not crucial for the Russian Navy, since Russia had all the necessary technology to build vessels not in any way inferior to their foreign equivalents, especially French ones.
Vladivostok was floated out in October 2013. The second Mistral-class amphibious assault ship built in France under contract with Russia was floated out 20 November 2014. The helicopter carrier, named the Sevastopol, left its dry dock in the French port city of Saint-Nazaire before just a few onlookers.
An article in Le Point weekly magazine in May 2015 stated that if Paris falls back on its promise to give the two vessels to Moscow, the French government could end up having to pay an overall cost of up to €5 billion ($5.7 billion), if it does not fulfill its contractual obligations. “Instead of bringing the French ship building cooperation DCNS a profit of €1.2 billion and those involved in the construction €980 million, the cancellation of the deal could cost France between €2 billion and €5 billion,” the article stated.
The magazine said that talks are ongoing between the respective French and Russian parties, although, “significant differences in regards to the amount of compensation exist.” The publication adds that “France is now looking to return Russia less than the €890 million that Moscow has already paid” for the vessels.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin ruled out allowing Paris to sell the Mistral warships to a third party without Moscow’s go-ahead. “Without our permission they can’t sell anything,” he said. Rogozin added he had already explained the situation to the French, while Russia has an end-user certificate for the stern parts of the vessels.
The stern parts of the helicopter carriers were built at a shipyard in St. Petersburg before being moved to France for further assembly, he explained. France will also be unable to use the Mistral vessels as part of their fleet because the warships were built to meet the Russian Navy’s specifications, Rogozin also stressed.
No comments:
Post a Comment