Russia offers french plane carriers for sale

the Vladivostok warship, the first of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers ordered by Russia, docks on the port of Saint-Nazaire, western France. (AP Photo/David Vincent, File)

Russia has offered to sell two french air craft carriers “Mistrals” to Egypt, equipped with Russian equipment that Moscow installed before breaching their contact with France.

A french official told “Defense News” that they were expecting that Egypt is most likely to buy the two carriers, due to the recent framework of convergence between Moscow and Cairo.

France had constructed the two carriers for Russia in exchange for 12 billion euro, with Paris only getting 893 million euro, before Russia stopped paying as a response to Europe’s attempts to enforce sanctions on it, and including France in the sanctions as well.

France had intended to return the money on several payments but Russia asked that they finish building some parts of the carriers and provide their consent to sell the Russian components to a third party.