Talks on Mistrals are in good progress – Putin's spokesman

04.03.2011 Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of Russian prime minister confuted media reports that Russian-French negotiations on procurement of Mistral class helicopter carriers had reached the deadlock.

Indeed, there are some minor problems, but that is absolutely natural for such large-scale projects, said Peskov in the interview to radio Echo Moskvy.

As was reported by Thursday's Kommersant, the talks had reached the deadlock due to discords in price. According to the newspaper, the contract cost may increase from EUR 980 mln to at least EUR 1.15 bln.