Canadian media speculation in late November 2014 that the French Government would cancel its sale of two 199m, 22,600 ton disp. Mistral-class helicopter carriers to the Russian Navy seemed premature as the vessels approached completion in St. Nazaire, France. The second of the batch, the Sevastopol, was floated out of its building dock on November 21, 2014. The first of the batch, Vladivostok, was already completed, and its crew of appr. 400 Russian Navy officers and seamen were in St. Nazaire to take delivery of both ships. They were, as of November 22, 2014, still aboard the Russian Navy training ship, Smolny, but had been aboard the Vladivostok for familiarization in mid-November 2014. Suggestions that France would terminate the contract for the vessels held significant problems for the French Government. The ship's stern sections were built not in France, but by the St. Petersburg shipyard, Baltiysky Zavod, part of United Shipbuilding Corporation. The STX France shipyard in St. Nazaire built the forward sections.
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