Before the NATO invasion of Libya, it seemed that the issue of Russia's acquisition of the Mistral helicopter carrier from the French and further joint cooperation regarding the production of such ships had been resolved, but the French, who did not want to reckon with the interests of the Russians, questioned the deal …
From the very beginning, the desire of the Russian military to acquire for their own purposes a helicopter carrier, created by the forces of the so-called conditional enemy, was rather strange. France did not openly act as an enemy of Russia, but, being part of NATO, this point seems obvious.
In a serious deal, which was supposed to cost the Russian budget a tidy sum of five hundred to six hundred million euros, the interest of the mighty of this world is clearly visible. This fact is also confirmed by the fact that neither the leaders of the Russian military department, nor their subordinates can give an intelligible answer to the question of why they need this particular technique so much. There is a lot of speculation about what could have caused such a strange cooperation between Russia and France in the naval sphere.
The first version is associated with the name of a major oligarch Sergei Pugachev, once a senator of Tuva. This person is a fairly well-known person in the circles of the world elite. "Owner of factories, newspapers, ships" currently lives and develops his business in France. Pugachev is quite firmly on his feet, in 2010 he acquired a large French edition of France Soir, however, this did not at all prompted analysts to think about the possible "correct" promotion of the project to implement the Mistral helicopter carrier by this person known in Russian circles.
The oligarch Sergei Pugachev, through the United Industrial Corporation, controls stakes in such enterprises as Severnaya Verf and Baltiysky Zavod, within whose walls it was planned to manipulate the French Mistral equipment already acquired by Russia before it entered service with the Russian fleet.
In the above version, there really is a certain amount of common sense and logic, but this project is too large and significant, because in the future, not only the purchase of one helicopter carrier was supposed to occur, the French planned to sell another exactly the same piece goods after it, then, together with the Russians, to start producing two more Mistral vessels. Projects of this scale cannot be carried out only in the interests of, even a very wealthy, native of Russia.
Another version looks more like the truth, its main characters and initiators are the leaders of two countries - Dmitry Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy. The large contract was supposed to become a kind of "gratitude" from Russia to France, whose leader acted as a peacemaker in the process of settling the consequences of the Russian-Georgian conflict.
Let us remind you that it was Nicolas Sarkozy who “softened” the reaction of Europe to the so-called aggression of “big” Russia against “a small but peaceful state”. The merit of the French leader is that Europe did not turn away from Russia, but reacted quite adequately to the situation.
The Russian-Georgian conflict has brought the two countries closer together, making their presidents rather close friends. It was during this period of "friendship" between the leaders that the idea of a joint project was born. It is not that a large-scale contract for the acquisition and manufacture of French military equipment was profitable for Russia, especially since there are plenty of enterprises working in this direction in the vast Russian expanses, but Medvedev could not answer the French with ingratitude and abandon the project.
However, neither President Medvedev nor Prime Minister Putin dared to declare openly that huge funds would be directed to the French, while they could have stayed in Russia and developed at their own defense factories. Undoubtedly, such a "soviet" approach could cause a storm of excitement in certain circles, especially since Russian designers publicly said that they would cope with this task on their own and at the same time save part of the money.
In the highest echelons of power, it was decided to avoid transparency in this matter and "hint" to the heads of the military department that they simply cannot do without this technique. It was also stated that the modern weapons that are being produced in Russia today are too outdated and this process requires new approaches.
Fortunately, the leaders of the military department turned out to be executive people and quickly heeded important advice. But the embarrassment was still unavoidable, because none of them was able to give an intelligible answer to the question why the Russian Armed Forces need the Mistral helicopter carriers.
Discussion of the project on cooperation between Russia and France was in full swing, when one of the parties, neglecting the interests of the other, began an armed conflict with a country for which the so-called partner had serious plans. We are talking about the French initiative to invade Libya and its further implementation. For Russian leaders, this was a real stab in the back, because Sarkozy could not help but know that such actions would lead to huge economic losses for Russia.
The northern country had long-term economic agreements with Libya in the oil and gas sector, railway construction, arms sales, etc. The virtually calculated revenues from cooperation with Libya, after the betrayal of Sarkozy and Co., remained for Russia only dreams.
However, no one has the right to offend one of the main players in the world political and economic arena, Russia does not forgive deception, which instantly affected the relations of the once active allies.
Did the French president think about the consequences of his act? Most likely, he thought and considered all possible options, so, for sure, he was ready for the consequences that his political games would entail. Be that as it may, the coldness between the two leaders - Dmitry Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy - has not escaped the world community.
Russia does not intend to forgive insults and can always find an opportunity to respond to the attack in its direction. As if by chance, the project for the acquisition of the French helicopter carrier Mistral was transferred to another department, and statements by officials appeared in the press that major economic transactions were not made in a matter of months, their implementation took years.
People who were able to analyze and had a little knowledge of politics and economics immediately realized that there were no prospects for French-Russian cooperation in the production of military equipment, at least in the near future.
Obviously, the deal on the acquisition of the Mistral helicopter carrier will be dragged out and gradually come to naught, for sure, the Russians will set conditions for the French that they themselves will refuse it. Domestic manufacturers of military equipment will remain the winners, our designers will have to design new models. True, the question is also whether the authorities will want to allocate huge funds: it is a matter of honor to repay with gratitude to another state, but own defense is a completely different story …
