Hollande, Putin to meet in Moscow
Baku, December 6, AZERTAC
French President Francois Hollande will make an unscheduled stop in Moscow later today to discuss the Ukraine crisis with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, his office has said.
The French president will stop in the Russian capital on the way back home from a visit to Kazakhstan and will likely meet Putin at an airport in Moscow, according to a statement from his office.
Warning that the eight-month Ukraine crisis -- which sparked off a brutal east-west stand-off- posed "serious threats to the economy of the entire region", yesterday President Hollande promised "to work together to find all the points that will allow... to initiate a de-escalation".
The European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on Russia over the crisis that has seen Moscow annex Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and some 4,300 people die as a result of fighting between Kiev government troops and pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Because of the tensions, France has been forced to delay delivery of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers that it was building for Russia in a 1.2 billion euro contract.
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