Arms

French flagship of the Russian Navy

Col. Gen. Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the General Staff, said that Russia was going to buy French Mistral-class helicopter carrier and he added that Russian shipyards would then produce more such carriers with France's aid. So the Ministry of Defense officially confirmed the information about the negotiations between Russia and France. The purchase, if successful, would be the first largescale arms import deal concluded by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.