No Mistrals For Putin

Russian vessel Smolnyi leaving St Nazaire to return to Russia - Photo Bernard Grua SAINT-NAZAIRE, France, Dec 18 (NMFP) - A ship carrying the Russian sailors who have been training for months on a French-built Mistral helicopter carrier left the French port of Saint-Nazaire on Thursday, in a departure that seems to exclude the delivery of the Mistral to Russia. A few activists including Bernard Grua saw their ship, the Smolny, leave the Atlantic Ocean port and head out to sea. French media reported this week how many of the 400 sailors and 150 crew members had been stocking up with parcels of purchases at local retailers. The sailors arrived in late June at the shipyard to begin training on a first carrier, named Vladivostock, which France was due to deliver to Russia by the last quarter of 2014. Bon vent! as we say in French (used to express relieve when somebody you don't want to see leaves finally) A few pictures taken by Bernard Grua : Russian vessel S...

Good news, the russian identification MMSI (273549920) for the Mistral Vladivostok has completely been disabled and doesn't officially exist anymore.  The page where we were  able to see it until today  now returns a 404 error while a  research with the vessel name "Vladivostok"  on the website marinetraffic returns only one result,  the French one! Following last Friday's act of piracy when the russian crew replaced the French MMSI by a russian one while  trying to move all their belongings to the Mistral to take officially possession of it , the Vladivostok  was considered without nationality  as she was under flags of two different countries. According to the article 92 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Ships shall sail under the flag of one State only  [...] A ship which sails under the flags of two or more States  [...]  may be assimilated to a ship without nationality Although Romain Nada...

Suite au  changement inattendu de MMSI (numéro d'immatriculation international maritime) du Mistral Vladivostok survenu le vendredi 14 Novembre , faisant apparaître le navire sous pavillon russe, plusieurs questions se posent: Qui a décidé ce changement et pourquoi? Il est relativement peu clair à l'instant où nous écrivons ces lignes du "qui" a décidé ce changement. DCNS évoque de façon peu convaincante un test demandé par le bureau VERITAS. Sachant que moins d'une heure après que nous ayons publié l'article avertissant de ce changement de MMSI, la balise a cessé d’émettre avec le MMSI russe et est revenue sous MMSI français le jour d’après, tout porte à croire qu'un membre de l'équipage russe se soit chargé de la manœuvre et ait été rabroué suite à notre publication et les interrogations auprès de DCNS qui s'en sont ensuivies. Techniquement parlant, le  numéro MMSI programmé sur une balise ne peut être reprogrammé  sans obtenir un déb...

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin gives an exclusive interview to Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Brussels, on November 17, 2014 | © AFP | Emmanuel Dunand France is "creative enough" to find a way to avoid delivering Mistral ships to Russia, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the AFP. "The opposition from Kiev to the delivery of the two vessels to Russia is crystal clear," said Klimkin in an interview with AFP. "Now it is time to have a clear message to Moscow that further destabilisation in Ukraine will trigger further steps by the EU," Klimkin said as he visited Brussels for talks with new EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini. "Mistral ships should not be delivered to Russia" insists Ukrainian diplomat. Tweet This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . Source: http://www.gandul.info/international/ucraina-cere-frantei-sa-nu-livreze-rusiei-navele-de-ra...

Romain Nadal Following the article we published last Friday when we spotted that the Mistral Vladivostok  could be seen in the international system of registration and identification of vessels under russian flag , Romain Nadal, spokesperson of the French Ministry of Foreign affairs, officially stated that the war ship is back under French flag.

The  unexpected change of the MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity) of the Mistral Vladivostok last friday November the 14th , showing this one as russian on online tracking systems, raises a few questions: Who decided this change and why? Who decided to change the MMSI is quite unclear at the moment where we are writing this article. DCNS explains it not very convincingly by a test requested by VERITAS. Less than one hour after we published an article warning of the MMSI change, the beacon stopped sending signals with the russian MMSI and started sending with the french MMSI the day after. Everything is leading us to think that a russian crew member proceeded with this manipulation and was rebuffed following our publication and the questions asked consequently to DCNS. Technically speaking, the  MMSI number programmed on the beacon cannot be modified  without prior unblocking provided by the manufacturer, similar to unblocking a cellular phone. This is due to...

Have you ever heard of the Salami technique? I guess not but you are already experiencing its results. How? Let me ask you three simple questions: Do you remember the first "humanitarian convoy" sent from Russia to the East of Ukraine and its impact in the media, politics, etc? Do you know how many "humanitarian convoys" came from Russia since then? Do you know if there is one planned and do you think the world should be completely focused on it? If you anwerred yes to the first question and no to the second or third one, then you have been "salamied" by Vladimir Putin. WHAT IS THE SALAMI TECHNIQUE? Salami slicing refers to a series of many small actions, often performed by clandestine means, that as an accumulated whole produces a much larger action or result that would be difficult or unlawful to perform all at once. The President of Russia has given new meaning to the expression “the salami technique”, which in the past ref...