Paris mulls canceling €1.4bn warship deal with Russia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Paris will consider canceling a 1.4-billion-euro deal to deliver two Mistral-class warships to the Russian Navy if Moscow provokes further escalation in Ukraine, the French foreign minister said, according to RIA Novosti.

In an interview with France’s TF1, Laurent Fabius denied the legitimacy of the referendum in Crimea to join Russia and urged Moscow to take urgent measures to avoid “useless and dangerous” escalation in Ukraine.

The first French Mistral-class amphibious assault ship, named Vladivostok, capable of deploying helicopters and tanks, was due to arrive in Russia by the year-end under a June 2011 contract signed between Russia and France.

A second Mistral-class warship, the Sevastopol, is due to arrive in 2015 and become part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquartered in Crimea.

"If Putin carries on like this, we could consider canceling these sales,” Fabius said Monday, March 17, adding that the possible loss of the contracts could be negative for the French economy.

Fabius said such move would be part of “phase three” of economic sanctions against Moscow. “Now we are at phase two,” he said.

The French minister emphasized that the sanctions must affect everyone and urged the United Kingdom to “do something equivalent with the assets of the Russian oligarchs in London.”

The remarks came after U.S. and EU imposed sanctions Monday on senior Russian officials following a referendum in Ukraine's Crimea in which voters overwhelmingly supported secession and unification with Russia.

Those named on the U.S. and EU lists of sanctions are banned from entry into the U.S. and EU member states and their financial assets will be frozen.