Russia has reached a compensation deal with France for the non-delivery of two Mistral warships, a Kremlin aide has said, but Paris on Friday refused to confirm an agreement, reports Yahoo! News.
"The negotiations are completely finished, everything has already been decided, both the time-frame and the amount," President Vladimir Putin's adviser for military and technical cooperation, Vladimir Kozhin, told state news agency RIA Novosti on Thursday evening.
"I hope we will sign the agreement on the termination of the contract as soon as possible," he added.
The fate of the two Mistral helicopter carriers has plagued France-Russia ties for more than a year, following Paris' decision in November to put the 1.2-billion-euro ($1.3-billion) deal on ice as the West slapped sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Crimea and alleged backing for separatist rebels in Ukraine.
French President François Hollande said on Monday that he would decide "in the coming weeks" whether or not to scrap the contentious contract to supply the two warships to Russia.
A French presidency source on Friday refused to confirm that any agreement had been reached.