Arrival of French Ship Fuels Debate
By Irina Titova
The St. Petersburg Times
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A French sailor stands on guard in one of the cargo hangars in the hold of The Mistral which docked in the city on Monday. |
Hundreds of St. Petersburg residents, many of them navy officers and shipbuilders, lined up in the fog on Wednesday to visit the French warship The Mistral, which arrived in the city on Monday and which the Russian military hopes to buy. During a two-day visit by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to France that started on Thursday the two countries may finally agree the purchase of a French Mistral-class amphibious assault ship, RIA Novosti reported. Yury Ushakov, a deputy head of the Russian government staff, said Putin’s visit agenda does not envision Mistral talks but said the issue “could be discussed.” If the deal is signed, the Mistral will be the largest vessel Russia has ever bought, according to experts. The Mistral, worth 400-500 million euros (around $600-$750 million), is inferior in size only to Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. The Mistral, a 21,500-metric ton 299-meter vessel, can anchor in coastal waters and deploy troops on land — a capability the navy lacks. The ship can carry 16 helicopters and dozens of armored vehicles, as well as up to 650 military personnel. The vessel is equipped with a 69-bed hospital and can be used as an amphibious command ship. But while some of the ship’s visitors on Tuesday admired its size and power, others said Russia should not buy the vessel in what would be its first major arms deals with a NATO country. “Our navy needs such ships,” said one of the visitors, seaman Andrei Yegorov, 42. “It could be quite useful in regional conflicts, such as last year’s Georgian conflict. Such a ship could serve as a good constraint there,” Yegorov said. Yevgeny Yakovlev, 70, a retired submarine designer, said that a ship like The Mistral would help bolster the nation’s global clout. “Good weaponry would allow us to play a more active role and influence things like the U.S. does,” he said. But shipbuilders have strongly opposed the Mistral deal, saying Moscow should invest in domestic production instead. “I feel very negative about the planned purchase,” Natalia Zuyeva, 26, a ship designer, said after visiting The Mistral. “It’s an act of sabotage against the domestic shipbuilding industries. We can build such ships ourselves, but the authorities don’t give us any orders or the money for it. “However, Russia builds naval ships for India,” Zuyeva said. Dmitry, 25, also a ship designer, who didn’t want to give his last name, said “the design and construction of a similar ship by local shipbuilders would cost approximately the same amount of money.” “Russia has good specialists who are able to build such ships and an order for such a ship would create more jobs for Russians. In addition, it would be a more modern design than The Mistral’s,” Dmitry said. The Mistral’s captain Didier Piaton, who held a press conference in the city on Tuesday, said the ship was “very easy to maneuver and move about in shallow waters.” “The ship can carry out four key tasks including the landing of 450 troops, tanks and up to 150 armored vehicles; it can serve as a helicopter base, a hospital and a center for navy operational headquarters,” Piaton said. The ship arrived in St. Petersburg on Monday to demonstrate its capabilities to the Russian military and to participate in joint maneuvers. Russia’s plans for the purchase of such a ship have fueled concerns in Georgia and other ex-Soviet nations that Russia is upgrading its navy to intimidate its neighbors. In recent years, Russia has sought to boost its global reach and prestige in world affairs. It has sent warships to patrol pirate-infested waters off Somalia, and in 2008 it dispatched a navy squadron to the Caribbean for joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy and for several port calls. The Caribbean mission, which came just months after the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war, marked Moscow’s first show of muscle near U.S. shores since the Cold War. However, the post-Soviet economic meltdown has left the Russian navy with only a handful of big ships in seaworthy condition and badly crippled the nation’s shipbuilding industries. Russian shipbuilders have opposed the Mistral deal, saying the government should invest in domestic production instead. Navy officials have argued that licensed production of Mistral-class ships would help modernize Russia’s aging industries. Vladimir Vysotsky, Chief Admiral of the Russian Navy, has said that a ship like The Mistral would have allowed the Russian navy to mount a far more efficient operation in the Black Sea during the Russia-Georgia war. He said the French ship would take just 40 minutes to do the job that the Russian Black Sea Fleet vessels did in 26 hours, apparently referring to amphibious landing operations, the Associated Press reported.
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