Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy Denis Manturov siad that the additional funds needed from India will only be received in 2009.
Photo: Mikhail Pochuev
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Indian Aircraft Carrier Stuck in Russia
India is prepared to pay $500-600 million of the additional $1 billion needed to upgrade the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov. The issue will be discussed during Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov's visit to India, which begins tomorrow, and work on the ship will be frozen until next year. Thus the delivery date for the modernized ship will be pushed back from 2012 to 2013.
The Admiral Gorshkov was given to India in return for modernizing the Sevmashpredpriyatie state unitary enterprise in 2004. The total value of the contract was $1.5 billion, of which the ship accounted for $700 million and the rest went for the purchase of 16 MiG-29K/KUB planes.
The Times of India quotes a source in the Indian Defense Ministry as saying that they “understand” that the scale of the work necessary to modernize the ship was underestimated in negotiations. However, the remainder of the funds needed to complete work on the ship, in addition to the sum India has already mentioned, will be subject to negotiation.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 11, 2008
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