December 29, 2010
The French overcame competition from Spanish, Dutch and South Korean firms. A major attraction of the French bid was that it was free of American components, licenses or technology, Russian officials said.
The deal was struck after tortuous negotiations lasting 18 months between Paris and Moscow. Serious talks began in 2009 shortly after France rejoined NATO's military network; French President Charles de Gaulle had withdrawn the country's forces from the alliance's command in 1966.
A sticking point in the negotiations had been France's initial refusal to agree to the ships to be fitted with state-of-the-art command-and-control technology.
The Russians told journalists that their "interests in this area had been satisfied" and that Russia would receive the technology to produce the Mistral's command-and-control system itself.
[...]
North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries along the Baltic Sea are said to be worried, notably Poland and the Baltic states. An unnamed diplomat from one of these countries told Le Monde newspaper: "The damage to France's image is considerable. The capital of political sympathy that Nicolas Sarkozy has garnered since 2007 in these regions has disappeared with this Mistral business."
Attempting to allay such fears, Nikolai Makarov, head of Russia's Armed Forces General Staff, told the Moscow Times that the ships would be deployed in the Pacific to defend the Kuril Islands, whose ownership is fiercely disputed by Japan.
[...]
Sarkozy claimed credit for brokering a cease-fire and a Russian withdrawal from Georgia after Moscow sent troops deep into the country during a five-day war in August 2008.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/29/world/la-fg-france-warships-20101230
