No Mistrals For Putin

Mistrals Sevastopol and Vladivostok in St Nazaire - Photo Bernard Grua Mistrals, delivery or not delivery? That's (still!) the question On July 27, 2015, President François Hollande made a communication about Mistral class invasion vessels, the "Vladivostok" and the "Sevastopol", built for Putin's Navy. This communication did not create big waves in France. This is probably because most of the French people are on vacations between July the 14th and August the 15th and because it was, actually, a poor statement. However, as we observed, a great emotion spread abroad. There, people and medias understood that President Hollande would announce the delivery very soon. Actually, nobody knows the answer. May be, even not, the President Hollande? Then we propose you to go back to the "original" information and to refresh you with some background. What said President Hollande? You can read an article in Liberation, French National newspaper, ...

© ITAR-TASS/Vadim Zhernov STX spokesman declaration? Russian Newspaper wrote earlier today that  an STX spokesman declared that they would deliver the Mistral to Russia in the next days, weeks. We contacted Delphine Glédel, official spokesman of STX that suggested we get in touch with DCNS directly. After sending an email to Emmanuel Gaudez, official spokesman for DCNS,  this article denying the information disclosed earlier by RIA NOVOSTI was published by ITAR-TASS : DCNS spokesman denial "PARIS, October 27. /TASS/. French naval shipbuilding corporations DCNS and STX do not plan to release information on presumable dates of delivery of Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia, Emmanuel Gaudez, an official spokesman for the DCNS told TASS on Monday. DCNS is the chief designer and contractor in the project, while the ships are built at the STX yards in Saint Nazaire. Gaudez said the corporations’ officials refrained from releasing any information on the issue, ...

Gérard Araud In a video interview given to Bloomberg, on the 22nd of Oct, France’s ambassador to the U.S Gerard Araud declared that there is no reason so far to deliver the Mistrals. Here is a transcript of this interview: Does France at this point see any reason to ease up sanctions against Russia? Araud:  No. It's very very clear. We have said that we will accept easing sanctions against Russia only if Russia takes significant steps on the ground in Ukraine and for the moment, unfortunately, we are not seeing them, weapons are still flowing to Ukraine there are still bloody incidents between separatists and the Ukrainian forces so we are still far from it. What's gonna happen with that deal (talking about the Mistral deal)? Araud:  The French president has said again that it will depend on the situation on the ground. We have put the delivery of the Mistral system on hold for the moment so we are looking at the situation. As I have said, there is no reason to ...