Moscow: With India and Russia at loggerheads
over the price of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, President
Dmitry Medvedev has asked the staff at Sevmash shipyard to
complete the warship at the earliest as it was "causing
problems between the two friendly countries."
"It should be completed and commissioned at the
earliest... it (delay in delivery) is causing problems between
the two friendly countries ," the Russian President told the
workers during a recent visit.
Going around the shipyard, Medvedev got to know from the
management about the status of the projects.
But despite an upbraiding by the President, the
Director-General of the shipyard Nikolai Kalistratov today
said that though India has agreed to the changes to the
Gorshkov contract, Moscow was yet to receive any fresh price
revision commitment.
"Sevmash has also not received any offers to continue to
talk on the revision of the contract," he told Itar-Tass.
Russia is asking India for an additional payment of a
whopping USD 2.2 billion over and above the contracted price
of USD 1.5 billion.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, August 06, 2009, 18:41