French to sell aircraft carrier to Russia?

Russia’s top general Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the General Staff, announced this week that the Russian navy wants to buy a French helicopter carrier. Marakov also announced that Russia has deployed advanced air defense systems on the border with North Korea and will press ahead in developing the beleaguered Bulava missile.
 
In what would be a landmark deal, the navy plans to buy a Mistral-class helicopter carrier — capable of carrying 16 helicopters, 40 tanks or up to 900 troops — and then jointly produce three or four additional carriers with France in Russian shipyards, Makarov said.
 
“Before the year’s end, we plan to obtain contract agreements with a French company allowing the construction and purchase of this ship,” Makarov told reporters in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, where he was traveling with President Dmitry Medvedev. This would be the biggest ever foreign military purchase for Russia, which has taditionally relied on the Soviet-era principle of producing all its defence military equipment  domestically, albeit often with the aid of plans and blueprints "aquired" from NATO countries. "No country in the world can do everything on its own", Marakov said. "Something will have to be purchased from abroad."
 
The French navy currently has two of the 21,300-ton carriers in service, with one more is under construction at the Chantiers de Saint-Nazaire dockyards. Speculation that Russia was interested in buying the helicopter carrier, first surfaced in Vedomosti and Kommersant last month, but Russian officials initially denied the reports. Russian defense analysts have questioned the expediency of such a costly purchase in the name of national security. Any military conflicts likely to involve Russia would be with its neighbors, which would require land troops and equipment rather than a sea vessel, they say.