Moscow plans to buy a French amphibious assault ship, the first such purchase from a Nato country, as the Kremlin seeks to reaffirm Russia's global reach, a Russian news agency reported Saturday. The Defence Ministry also plans to license the production of four more ships of the Mistral class in Russia under the guidance of French engineers, Navy Admiral Oleg Burtsev was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.
A Mistral ship is capable of carrying more than a dozen helicopters along with dozens of tanks and other armoured vehicles and is fit for missions intended to project Russian naval power to distant areas. Burtsev said the ships will be part of Russia's Arctic and Pacific fleets. The Kremlin increasingly has sought in recent years to reaffirm Russia's global involvement and prestige in world affairs.
It has sent its warships to patrol pirate-infested waters off Somalia, and in the fall of 2008 dispatched a navy squadron to the Caribbean where it took part in joint manoeuvres with the Venezuelan navy and made several port calls. Russia currently has only one Soviet-built aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is much smaller than the US aircraft carriers and has been plagued by mechanical problems and accidents.
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