On Christmas Eve 2010, then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy with some big news: Russia was prepared to purchase two Mistral class helicopter carriers from France for a total of €1.2 billion ($1.5 billion). Almost four years later, the first of these ships, the Vladivostok, sits idle in the port of Saint-Nazaire, its future clouded by the stand-off between Russia and the West over the crisis in Ukraine. Last week, the ongoing stalemate resulted in the French project director responsible for delivering the ships being fired. So what’s going on? There’s conflicting information from both …read more
Source: Business Insider
