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 last month to begin training on the first of two warships built for the Russian navy by France.

Even before the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over Ukraine put new pressure on Europe to impose stiffer sanctions on Russia, France's decision to proceed with the sale of the warships to Moscow and to train the Russian navy in how to operate them had prompted opposition and concern from the United States and other nations.