France secretly transferred money to Russia for the Mistral
In an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, Paris settled with Russia for the contract for the supply of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers to Russia, which was disrupted through the fault of France, Kommersant reports.
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“Back in May, France was ready to reimburse “expenses and losses” - €784,6 million (and only if documentary evidence was received), while Russia demanded the return of not only the advance €892,9 million, but also funds for training 400 crew sailors, construction of infrastructure for basing helicopter carriers in Vladivostok and work on the creation of four prototypes of deck-based Ka-52K helicopters - in the amount of €1,163 billion - the publication recalls the essence of Russian claims. “Moscow’s main argument in the dispute with Paris was that the contract was not terminated on its initiative and, according to Kommersant’s source in the Kremlin, France had no counterarguments on this matter.”
As a result, Russian demands were satisfied by Paris almost in full.
“According to Kommersant, yesterday, in the strictest secrecy, over €1,1 billion was transferred to the current accounts of one of the Russian banks: this amount also included all the risks and expenses associated with the dismantling and unloading of Russian equipment from ships,” reports newspaper. – According to Kommersant’s sources in the field of military-technical cooperation, the “strictest secrecy” was due to Russia’s risks in connection with the YUKOS case (in July 2014, the Hague court ordered the government to pay the former shareholders of the oil company $50 billion): at the time of transfer of funds from From France to Russia, all the money due under the terms of the termination of the contract could have been seized.”
France secretly transferred money to Russia for the Mistrals.