The Mistral-class helicopter carrier (Reuters/Stephane Mahe)
France Halts Warship Delivery To Russia -- BBC
France has said conditions are "not right" for delivery of the first of two Mistral navy assault ships to Russia.
President Francois Hollande's office blamed Moscow's recent actions in Ukraine.
France had until now resisted pressure to halt the delivery.
It had said it needed to respect an existing contract, to which EU sanctions could not apply retroactively, and that it would have been too costly to cancel.
The Vladivostok, the first of the two helicopter carriers, was expected to have been delivered to Russia by late October.
The second, the Sevastopol, was to have been sent next year, although no mention of it was made in Mr Hollande's statement.
Read more ....
More News On France Suspending Delivery Of Mistral Navy Assault Ship To Russia
France suspends delivery of warship to Russia -- AP
France says cannot deliver first helicopter carrier to Russia -- Reuters
France Postpones Delivery of Warship to Russia -- NYT
France backs off sending Mistral warship to Russia in $1.7 billion deal -- Washington Post
Hollande Suspends Warship Delivery to Russia Before NATO -- Bloomberg
France halts delivery of warship to Russia -- The Guardian
France changes tack on Mistral warship delivery to Russia -- Deutsche Welle
France says it cannot deliver Mistral warship to Russia over Ukraine -- RT
France Puts Off Delivery of First Mistral-Class Helicopter Carrier to Russia -- RIA Novosti
My Comment: This is a quick and major shift for the French .... especially since they said yesterday that everything was still a go for the French - Russian Mistral deal.
7 comments:
Makes you wonder if they know something we don't.
It is either that phil (which I hope is not because it makes one wonder if everything is about to explode) .... or they are under pressure from member NATO states to not go ahead with such a transfer during this period of time.
Hollande is in big political trouble right now. He can't alienate the largest part of his political base (the unions). So let's see how long he holds out.
That's why it's shockingly he did suspend the delivery....just seems like there's something bigger going on.
I don't know Phil. It just might be the Obama people pulling out all the stops to make him look good (see he's doing something) while over there.
You mean a little foreign policy poke to the eye, Damn that's mean.
Phil,
Think image, it's everything to them.
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