NightTrain
09-03-2014, 03:25 PM
It always seems to me that France considers a paycheck more important than doing the ethical thing, like building warships for Russia despite their aggressive land-grabbing moves to their neighbors.
Let's not forget that they have no problem with building nuclear sites for middle-eastern madmen before Israel ended the projects with airstrikes.
Looks like they decided to do the right thing by withholding delivery of those two Helicopter Carriers to Putin... which will create a legal snarl, because one is already paid for and Russia does own part of the ships that were constructed in Russia and then shipped to France.
Seems like it's a stupid move on Russia's part anyway... having other countries build a warship for you pretty much negates any secrets about the ship, like performance, range, defensive systems, hull thickness, etc. In my mind it's a better idea to build it yourself, something we all know they're actually pretty decent at... or they used to be, anyway.
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, saying it had to respect an existing contract.
Russia's Deputy Defence Minister Yury Borisov said the French decision would not hold back Moscow's plans to reform its armed forces.
"Although of course it is unpleasant and adds to certain tensions in relations with our French partners, the cancelling of this contract will not be a tragedy for our modernisation," he said, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted his thanks to the French leadership for its "responsible decision", which he said was "important for restoring peace in Europe".
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.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29052599
Let's not forget that they have no problem with building nuclear sites for middle-eastern madmen before Israel ended the projects with airstrikes.
Looks like they decided to do the right thing by withholding delivery of those two Helicopter Carriers to Putin... which will create a legal snarl, because one is already paid for and Russia does own part of the ships that were constructed in Russia and then shipped to France.
Seems like it's a stupid move on Russia's part anyway... having other countries build a warship for you pretty much negates any secrets about the ship, like performance, range, defensive systems, hull thickness, etc. In my mind it's a better idea to build it yourself, something we all know they're actually pretty decent at... or they used to be, anyway.
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, saying it had to respect an existing contract.
Russia's Deputy Defence Minister Yury Borisov said the French decision would not hold back Moscow's plans to reform its armed forces.
"Although of course it is unpleasant and adds to certain tensions in relations with our French partners, the cancelling of this contract will not be a tragedy for our modernisation," he said, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted his thanks to the French leadership for its "responsible decision", which he said was "important for restoring peace in Europe".
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.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29052599