Egypt rubs in the salt in Hollande’s wounds by ordering 50 Alligator helicopters from Russia to outfit the Mistrals, which France is now going to sell to Egypt.
So to sum up this whole sorry affair:
(1) Russia originally ordered French Mistrals under Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. His foreign aquisitions were ostensibly aimed to pressure Russian producers to lower costs, but more cynical observers suspected it may have had more to do with foreign arms manufacturers providing kickbacks to him and his female posse which had effectively seized the Defense Ministry under the Medvedev Presidency.
(2) Rumors which gained credence when he was dismissed for corruption on a scale that raised eyebrows even in a country as corrupt as Russia.
(3) After about a year of delays following those little triffling incidents in Crimea and the Donbass, France made a definitive decision, under US pressure, to avoid selling the Mistrals to Russia, making it liable for about $1 billion worth of fines. (To his credit, Hollande’s government accepted the legitimacy of these penalties, so as to avoid completely discrediting France’s commercial reputation in the international arms market). As an added bonus, Russia got most of the technical blueprints on the Mistral anyway (saving $$$ in R&D costs).
(4) Now Russia, or at least Kamov, is receiving a further $1 billion in orders.
Ironically enough, what began as a very expensive and questionable way of pressuring Russian arms manufacturers at best, and yet another of Serdyukov’s corruption schemes at worst, actually ended up working out quite nicely for Russia. France got cucked by hamburger, Russia got out ahead.
Um, what the hell do the Egyptians need such a vessel for? Must suspect that the French bribed Egypt to relieve them of this embarrassment.
Hamburger?
“Hamburger” = United States.
Haven’t you heard that Saudi-Arabia is working on an Arabian alliance?
Egypt is one of the main contributors.
Germany the day before yesterday, Arabs the day after tomorrow
It is disappointing that Russian military technology is boring now .
Insead of looking to France for a ship, I would like them to have built a humongous Ekranoplan
Anatoly, I heard a different theory from the Saker a while back. He claimed that the Mistral deal was basically a gift to Sarkozy for helping to broker an end to the Georgian War in 2008 without blaming Russia. Saker emphasized that Russia had the technology to build these boats on their own, so he saw it as a reward to France.
Since the death of king Abdullah Saudi-Egyptian relations have become significantly cooler.
It looks like Gen. Sisi is taking Egypt in a pro-Russian direction, reversing the work of Sadat.
Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know if The Saker has sources or is merely speculating.
But $2 billion is an awfully expensive gift for not really doing that big of a favor anyway.
It was a “package” deal.