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Super Su-30 Jet Fighter Flies Home
A Su-30 Russian fighter jet that was briefly impounded at the Paris Air Show Friday has flown back to Russia, a spokesman for Russia's space and aviation agency told reporters.
The Su-30 jet left the Le Bourget airfield outside Paris at 5:30 pm (1330 GMT), the spokesman said.
"This departure time had been planned before the start of the air show," said Rosaviokosmos spokesman Konstantin Kreidenko.
"They tried to make a scandal out of this, but clearly this did not work."
The supersonic fighter had been seized in accordance with a lawsuit filed by the Swiss trading firm Noga, which is suing the Russian government for it says are US$63 million in unpaid debts.
The circumstances in which the jet fighter was allowed to leave Paris were not immediately clear.
The incident immediately sparked outrage in Moscow, with some politicians calling for a review of Russia's future relations with France.
It also came on the eve of a three-day visit to Moscow by French President Jacques Chirac.
However moments after the jet's departure for Russia, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that Moscow would do all it could to assure that the incident did not spoil bilateral relations with Paris.
Russia "will take firm steps to assure (that the incident) does not have any repercussions," RIA Novosti quoted Ivanov as saying.
The firm Noga sealed a trade deal with the Russian government in 1992, and has been battling Moscow ever since.
The Russian government claims it has already paid the bill, just before the Russian currency lost almost all its value in 1993. But Noga insists only a fraction of the original contract was honored in dollar terms.
In 1993, the lawsuit led to a temporary freeze of Russian central bank accounts in Luxembourg and Switzerland.
A Noga lawsuit also temporarily led to the seizure of a Russian ship, the Sedov, in the French port of Brest last year.
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