French port welcomes Russians

[SAINT-NAZAIRE, France] The owner of Norway's Café is keeping a bottle of vodka chilled in case she gets a visit from any of the 400 Russian sailors temporarily stationed here. The Chamber of Commerce has published a brochure for local shopkeepers with Russian phrases. Residents sometimes stop their cars to get a glimpse of the Russians playing soccer or sunning themselves near where their ship is docked.

Saint-Nazaire, a shipbuilding city on the Atlantic coast south-west of Paris, is used to seeing sailors from around the world. But few have been the subject of as much interest and debate as those who arrived here las…