Water use

The amount of the penalty that France is obliged to pay Russia for the termination of the contract for the supply of two helicopter carriers of the Mistral class is 949,754,859 euros. It is reported by Le Monde with reference to an agreement concluded on August 5 in Moscow by the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Rogozin and the Secretary General of the defense and national security of France Louis Gauthier.

Now the document should be ratified by the parliament of France. The first reading of the corresponding bill will be held in the lower house of the parliament - the National Assembly - September 15.

The agreement also provides that France does not have the right to transfer ships to a third party until it pays Russia the entire amount of the penalty. In addition, the document denies the right to compensate for any third party, which could suffer from the breakdown of the contract.

As possible buyers, the French press calls Canada, Egypt and India as possible.

In mid -August, Le Canard Enchaîné wrote that the breakdown of the deal with Russia will cost France 2 billion euros . However, the Minister of Finance of the country Michel Sapen denied this information, saying that the amount of the penalty would be less than 1 billion.

The contract for the supply of two Mistrals, which in Russia received the names "Vladivostok" and "Sevastopol", was signed in 2011. The transaction price amounted to more than 1.2 billion euros. By the end of 2014, both ships were built, but before that Russia was annexed by Crimea and went into confrontation with the countries of the free world. In these conditions, France, supported by other democratic states, postponed the transfer of Russia's helicopter carriers. Finally, around the spring of 2015,Paris was offered to terminate the contract . In early August, it was reported that France had already returned to Russia the money received under the contract.