France offers Russia 785 mn euros to ditch warship deal: report
Moscow, May 15, 2015 (AFP) -- France has offered Russia 785 million euros ($890 million) to scrap a contentious contract to supply two warships that was suspended due to the Ukraine crisis, a report said Friday.
Russian defence sources told Kommersant newspaper that the documents are now "being studied" by the Russian government, defence ministry and other relevant parties which participated in the 2011 deal.
But the daily reported that Moscow was not happy with the French offer, with the defence ministry claiming that Russian firms have now incurred 1.16 billion euros of costs associated with the ships.
The fate of the two Mistral helicopter carriers has plagued French-Russia ties for over a year, following the decision by Paris to put the 1.2 billion euro deal on ice as the West slapped sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea and alleged backing for separatist rebels in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last month played down the importance of the ships and claimed that Russia ordered them mostly to help the French shipyard.
The Kremlin strongman, however, made clear Moscow would still like its money back.
"We are not planning to demand any penalties or exorbitant fines but all expenses should be returned," he said.
While Kommersant reported France is proposing to return only the cash that was paid on the deal, Russia would like to have other expenses reimbursed, such as training costs of 400 sailors for the crews and building port infrastructure in Vladivostok, where the first of the two ships was to be based.
"The option of returning the sum in the French offer categorically does not work for us," a source told Kommersant.
The first ship was due for delivery in 2014, while the second, called Sevastopol, was to be delivered this year.
A senior MP in the Duma lower house Vladimir Komoyedov, a former commander of the Black Sea fleet who now heads the defence committee, further said France actually owes Russia nearly twice what it is offering.
"It is necessary to demand 1.5 billion euro compensation from France, not just for breaking the contract but for all the costs, for preparing the 400-strong crew, for all transportation, including the fact that we had to send a ship to collect the crew" from the Saint Nazaire shipyard, he told RIA-Novosti agency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the discrepancy of the French and Russian calculations Friday, reiterating Putin's comments that Russia is ready to receive either the ships or the money.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, asked about the deal Friday, indicated that the issue is no longer a diplomatic one.
"The issue has moved to the legal and commercial sphere," he said during a press conference in Belgrade, adding that political aspects have "long been clarified."
McCain Turns Down Ukraine Post
U.S. Senator John McCain has said, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' to a job offer from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
The Ukrainian leader had asked McCain, among other leading officials, to join an advisory council to help Ukraine craft reforms and secure global support.
But in a statement on his website, McCain said constitutional constraits prohibited from accepting the offer.
In declining the offer, McCain said he will "continue to do everything" he can to stop what he called Russian President Vladimir Putin's "unabated agression" against Ukraine.
McCain has been one of the most vocal backers for sending U.S. arms to Ukraine.
The Advisory International Council of Reforms is to be headed by Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia, and will also include Elmar Brok, a member of the European Parliament, and economist Anders Aslund.
Based on reporting by AFP and TASS
Senior US diplomat meets with Ukrainian prime minister in Kiev
Berlin (dpa) - The US assistant secretary of state for Eurasian affairs, Victoria Nuland, met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Kiev to discuss issues that included "overcoming Russian aggression," the Ukrainian government said.
The officials on Thursday discussed US aid to help Ukraine implement a ceasefire with pro-Russian separatist rebels in the east as well as implement economic reforms in preparation for an EU free-trade agreement to come into effect in January, Ukraine's cabinet said late Thursday in a statement.
Nuland is scheduled to meet with several Ukrainian officials during her visit, which lasts until Saturday, the US State Department said.
Her trip follows a landmark meeting this week between Secretary of State John Kerry and President Vladimir Putin in Russia, during which they discussed the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Relations between the United States and Russia plummeted last year to a low unprecedented since the Cold War after protests in Kiev led to the ouster of Ukraine's pro-Russian president and Russia then annexed Ukraine's Crimea region and supported the separatist uprising.
More than 6,000 people have been killed in the conflict since it turned violent in April last year, according to the United Nations.
Nuland had been portrayed in Russian media as exemplifying purported US involvement in deposing Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's pro-Russian president, after she met with opposition leaders during the protest movement that erupted in late 2013 after Yanukovych decided not to
sign an association agreement with the European Union and instead focus on building ties with Russia.
This week, ahead of Kerry's meeting in the southern Russian city of Sochi, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it hoped the visit would "help normalize bilateral relations, upon which much of the world's stability depends."
But the ministry also blamed the US for damaging ties, saying the US "unreasonably attributed to Russia responsibility for the Ukraine crisis, which in many ways was provoked by the US themselves."
More on the Mistral deal:
Russia Ready To Take Cash From France Instead Of Warships
Russia says it is ready to take cash from France instead of two warships.
Russia has ordered two Mistral helicopter carriers from France.
But Paris is under pressure from Western allies not to turn them over due to Russian actions in Ukraine.
French President Francois Holland and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the contract when they met in Armenia last month.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded on May 15 to a newspaper report that France had made a formal proposal to scrap the deal.
He said the issue was not a major headache in relations betwen the two countries.
"The principle is the following -- either the goods or the money," Peskov said.
According to Russian business daily Kommersant, Moscow has put its spending and losses over the contract at 1.16 billion euros but that Paris was offering to pay 785 million euros.
Peskov did not comment on the details of the report.