When then-French Defense Minister Herve Morin was asked about the prospect of France selling Mistral amphibious assault ships to Russia in a 2010 interview, he spoke of the need for a new kind of relationship with Russia. “We can’t go on calling for a strategic peace and security partnership” with Russia, he told the newspaper La Tribune, and “see the Russians simply as heirs of the Soviet Union.”
Somewhat more practically, he also welcomed “the fact that we can hope to get a major contract for French industry.”
Four years later, prospects are remote for the kind of Western rapprochement with Russia Morin envisioned. But the $1.6 billion contract to sell two Mistrals remains, and despite pressure from the United States and others, the administration of French President Francois Hollande still plans on following through.