ST. PETERSBURG, July 2. /TASS/. Russia is in the process of addressing the issue of recovering the money paid to France for the Mistral amphibious assault ships, presidential aide for military-technical cooperation, Vladimir Kozhin, said at the international naval show in St. Petersburg.
At the beginning of last month Kozhin said he hoped for a settlement of the Mistral issue during the summer.
"We are pushing ahead with efforts to settle the issue and get the money back," Kozhin said in reply to a question.
Earlier, the deputy chief of Russia’s arms exporter Rosoboronexport, Igor Sevastianov, told TASS on the sidelines of the naval show that Russia was looking forward to proposals for settling the Mistral issue, adding that it was too early to say anything about specific results.
Russia signed a contract to build the helicopter carriers Mistral with France in the summer of 2011. The Russian Navy was to receive the first ship, The Vladivostok, in the autumn of 2014. Paris paused the delivery over the situation in Ukraine. The other ship, The Sevastopol, was to be provided in the second half of 2015. Its handover is currently frozen, too.
According to earlier reports France is prepared to pay a compensation, if the ships fail to be delivered. Moscow has repeatedly said it would accept any option - either the ships or the money.
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