Russian Sailors At Sea Without New Warship

Russian sailors boarding the Smolny

The Vladivostok was due to be handed over in October but France has had second thoughts because of the Ukraine conflict.

Russian sailors have left a French port minus the warship that was built for their navy.

The delivery of the Vladivostok has been suspended by the French government because of the conflict in Ukraine.
France signed a deal worth 1.2bn euros (£940m) in 2011 to build and sell two Mistral-class warships to Russia and to train sailors to operate them.
It was part of the biggest arms sale ever by a NATO country to the Kremlin.

The Vladivostock will remain in France for the time being

The sailors arrived in Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic coast in June for a four-month training programme.
And the Vladivostok was due to be handed over in October, while the second ship, the Sevastopol, was scheduled for delivery next year.
But in September, after pressure to cancel the deal following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and its support for the separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, French President Francois Hollande said conditions for the delivery of the ships had not been met.

Russian sailors bid 'dasvidaniya' to France

Defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, later suggested in a television interview that the two warships might never be delivered, saying: “The Russians must realise this situation.”
About 400 Russian sailors have been involved in the training programme on the Vladivostok, at the port of Montoir-de-Bretagne near Saint-Nazaire.
They were living aboard a Russian ship, the Smolny, which reportedly set sail from Saint-Nazaire on Thursday morning.
The Vladivostok will remain in port until a final decision on its future is taken.
The vessels can each carry up to 30 helicopters, 60 armoured vehicles, 13 tanks and 700 soldiers.