The Mistral Vladivostok Was Under Russian Flag On The 14th Of Nov.

Nov 14, 02:00pm: An activist, Yuriy Tyukhnin, noticed that the MMSI number of the Mistral Vladivostok just changed from 227022600 (France) to 273549920 (Russia). The boat seems to be already officially Russian by now.

MMSIs are regulated and managed internationally by the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Switzerland, just as radio call signs are regulated. The MMSI format and use is documented in Article 19 of the ITU Radio Regulations and ITU-R Recommendation M.585-6, available from the ITU.

We use this link to track the movements of the boat and as you can see, the French MMSI does not exist anymore, it has been transferred to a Russian MMSI.
In France, the procedure to get a MMSI is quite straight and you have to have all documents in order to get it.

The last signal received under the French MMSI was 2014-11-13 08:24, since that, it is not updated. The russian MMSI is updated regularly.

It looks like the French government lied so much that they did transfer the ownership of the boat as scheduled without a ceremony.

Or is it another mistake, a HUGE one?

Update: French DCNS denies transfer of Vladivostok to Russia and says that Bureau VERITAS requested the system to be activated to deliver the ships's seaworthiness certificate as per international rules.

Update 2: 14 Nov 09:40pm: The AIS system (Automatic Identification System) allowing to track the boat has been turned off at 2:06 pm. It is now impossible to check if she is moving. According to DCNS, the MMSI should have come back to the french one and be active in the afternoon.

Update 3: 15 Nov 08:00am: The MMSI linked to the war ship is back to the French one (227022600), the AIS system (Automatic Identification System) allowing to track the boat is live and providing information. BUT TECHNICALLY, THE BOAT CAN BECOME RUSSIAN ANY MINUTE NOW, EVERYTHING IS IN PLACE. It looks like the French government is using the Salami technique to get us used to the fact that the boat will become russian one day

In this video published by French newspaper Ouest France, you can see that the Mistral does not have the French flag anymore but does not have the Russian one either. Orders can be heard in Russian on the boat:


Dimitri Halby, No Mistrals for Putin

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