MOSCOW/PARIS (Reuters) - Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday that France would not be dictated to after an unidentified Russian official was quoted as giving Paris two weeks to deliver the first of two Mistral helicopter carriers or face possible compensation claims.
France has for months resisted pressure from Washington and other allies to scrap the 1.2 billion euro (957 million pounds) contract and in September said it would only hand over the first carrier, the Vladivostok, if there was a lasting ceasefire and a political settlement in Ukraine.