France Suspends Delivery Of Mistral Navy Assault Ship To Russia

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.



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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 .