Russian sailors start 'Mistral training'

The warship deal between France and Russian goes on as scheduled. About 400 Russian sailors arrived today in France to start training and getting familiar with the warship. The 1.2 billion euro deal was highly criticized by US and EU.

Despite NATO and US forces wanted France to hold off the 1.2 billion euro deal with Russia because of the Ukrainian crisis, France said no. The first Mistral helicopter carrier is scheduled to be delivered in October and the second one next year. Russian government sent 400 sailors to start training.

The Russian ship reached a French harbor today. During their training, the sailors will be staying onboard the Russian ship docked next to the two Mistral helicopter carriers. France agreed the deal in 2001, way before the crisis in Ukraine started. However, USA and EU have been very vocal about the deal, but Russian officials stated France would face heavy penalties if the deal is scrapped.

“We have regularly and consistently expressed our concerns about this sale even before we had latest Russian actions and we will continue to do so,” said Cistoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of EU. “If we increase NATO defence spending while joining in a coordinated embargo on all arms sales to Russia, including halting the sale of two French built Mistral amphibious ships, it will send a clear message to Putin that he will no be allowed to trample on the rights of his neighbors,” Congressman Eliot Engel added.

The Mistral helicopter carrier is the second largest ship in the French navy. It is designed to carry 16 heavy duty military helicopters, four landing craft, up to 60 armored vehicles and about 700 troops. The costs of a single unit exceeds 500 million euros.