04.05.2011
Text:
Photo:
Mistral class assault landing ship.
"New representatives of Russian defense ministry will participate in the coming round of Russian-French negotiations on
Mistrals. Presently, they receive all appropriate documents of this contract", said the interviewee.
He reminded that "two key representatives of defense ministry – Navy deputy commander for armaments Nikolai Borisov and deputy defense minister Vladimir Popovkin – withdrew from negotiations earlier on".
Two weeks ago Russian president Dmitry Medvedev released Borisov from the office and dismissed him from service. Vice Admiral Borisov represented Russian Navy at talks on the
Mistral procurement.
Being one of initiators and defense ministry's principal supervisor of the
Mistral sale, Popovkin was appointed the director of the Federal Space Agency (
Roskosmos) on Apr 29, having changed Anatoly Perminov. His position in defense ministry remains vacant.
So far,
RIA Novosti has no information about who is going to represent Russian defense ministry at the talks on
Mistral class ships.
"Virtually, that is just a technical replacement. The negotiations have gone far, so positions of the parties are known. The only question is whether French party would sell fully equipped ships to Russia or not", underlined the source.
Disputable matter is two NATO standard control systems – tactical data system
Zenith-9 and fleet command system
SIC-21. As was earlier reported, France is ready to deliver
Zenith-9 to Russia without production certificate, and does not want to deliver
SIC-21 at all. The only French aircraft carrier
Charles de Gaulle is equipped with
SIC-21 system.
Intergovernmental agreement on purchase of assault landing ship
Mistral was tied on Jan 25, 2011 in Saint-Nazaire (France). It contained neither deadlines nor costs of the future contract; they will be specified in a separate agreement to be signed by
Rosoboronexport (Russia) and
DCNS (France). Earlier on, Vladimir Popovkin said the contract was evaluated at least as EUR 1.5 bln.
