France built Russia two warships. Then it kept them.
The Mistrals were completed at Saint-Nazaire, but Paris cancelled delivery in 2015 and agreed to reimburse Moscow.
France built Russia two warships. Then delivery became the political part.
Russia ordered two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships from France in 2011. They were built at Saint-Nazaire and named *Vladivostok* and *Sevastopol*. By 2015 they were finished vessels, not drawings in a procurement plan. The *Sevastopol* had completed sea trials, Russian sailors had trained in France and preparations had been made for the ships’ eventual arrival in Russia.
The physical progress did not settle the political question. Reuters reported on 5 August 2015 that President François Hollande had faced pressure from France’s Western allies over Russia’s role in the Ukraine crisis. Paris first resisted cancellation, then agreed to terminate the sale and reimburse Russia. The reporting establishes allied pressure. It does not establish a formal NATO or allied veto ordering France to cancel.
The transaction had already generated costs and expectations. Deutsche Welle reported that Russia had paid an advance of about €840 million on a deal worth roughly €1.2 billion. Reuters reported that Moscow had sought €1.163 billion. Those numbers describe different things: a reported contract value, an advance payment and a Russian demand. The final reimbursement was not disclosed in the Reuters account and should not be presented as any of those figures.
The August settlement unwound the deal financially. France agreed to reimburse Russia and received the right to decide what to do with the ships. Russian equipment was to be removed and returned. The result was unusual in procurement terms. Russia lost the vessels it had ordered, while France retained two completed warships for which it now had to find a use or a buyer.
The cost did not stop with the refund. Reuters reported that DCNS, the state-backed French builder, was spending at least €1 million a month to store the carriers. Canada, Singapore and Egypt were mentioned as possible buyers. A possible buyer is not a completed sale, and the retrieved reports do not establish that any of those countries bought or received the ships.
Russia had also prepared around the purchase. Deutsche Welle reported training for about 400 sailors, port infrastructure in Vladivostok and the development of prototype helicopters among the costs Moscow cited. Those preparations show that the deal had moved beyond a paper commitment. They do not establish the amount Russia recovered, whether the prototypes entered service or what happened to the infrastructure.
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