Paris's rejection of Mistral deal will affect French economy, not Russian Navy - Public Chamber official
MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The French economy, not the Russian Navy, will lose if France decides to suspend military-technological cooperation with Russia and halt the delivery of Mistral-class helicopter carriers, currently under construction at a French shipyard, as part of possible sanctions, the chairman of the Russian Public Chamber's national security commission, Andrei Kanshin, told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.
"I am convinced that if France imposes sanctions on Russia and refuses to provide us with, for example, Mistral assault ships, this decision will primarily affect the French economy, not the combat readiness of the Russian Navy," he said.
Kanshin offered his comments in response to a statement by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who said that the possibility of cancelling the Mistral deal was among potential sanctions if Russia refused to change its policy toward Ukraine.
In this case, the money needed to fund the construction of such assault ships will be redirected to Russian defense industry enterprises and may be invested in the development of the country's shipbuilding corporations, Kanshin said.
"We will spend the saved money on the development of Russian shipbuilding corporations in the Far East, the Kaliningrad region and other districts," he said.
When commenting on the Mistral contract, Kanshin said that "it was a political decision rather than an economic one."
"As you know, Mistral ships are able to operate only within a 200-mile maritime area, which is obviously insufficient for large ships of the Russian Navy which tackle their tasks within strategic operations zones, including the Arctic and Pacific Oceans and other maritime areas. I think that the decision to purchase these assault ships was political rather than economic and was intended to show to the Russian defense industry that there may be a foreign alternative," he said.
