France lost over 400 million euros ($440 million) due to its refusal to sell Russia two Mistral-class helicopter carriers in 2015, French newspaper La Tribune reported on Monday, citing a Court of Accounts report
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th January, 2023) France lost over 400 million Euros ($440 million) due to its refusal to sell Russia two Mistral-class helicopter carriers in 2015, French newspaper La Tribune reported on Monday, citing a Court of Accounts report.
Russia and France terminated the contract in 2015, when the vessels were almost ready. Egypt bought them later that year.
"Taking into account the results of talks with Russia, refused payments, compensation to Naval Group, constructional modifications and transfer to Egypt, the whole operation cost France 409 million euros," the report read, as cited by La Tribune.
France should have paid Russia around 950 million euros as compensation, the amount Egypt ended up paying to buy the ships. It was planned that final expenditures would amount to 200-250 million euros for Paris, however, the real costs turned out to be twice as large, according to the report.
Russia and France signed the 1.2-billion-euro ($1.3-billion) contract in 2011. It was terminated due to sanctions imposed on Moscow in light of Crimea's reunification with Russia.
