Indian defense minister Arakkaparambil Kurian Antony promised to dismiss a naval officer who had adulterous relationship with a Russian woman in Severodvinsk, writes Hindu. "He'll be definitely fired. We won't serve any more", said the minister on Sunday answering the question about further career of the officer.
Commodore Singkh had been heading the expert group observing refit of Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkovunder India's order in Severodvinsk. Early in 2010 Indian media sources published photos of the married commodore in bed with unknown Russian woman.
Indian Navy set a special board to identify relationships of Mr. Singkh with "other Russian citizens" to determine whether those relations could have affected the cost of supplementary contract on the carrier's modernization.
Retrofit contract of aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov (later renamed into INS Vikramaditya) for Indian Navy was tied with Russia in 2004. It became the biggest-ever defense export contract between the two countries. Initially, the modernization was evaluated as $616 mln, and it was planned to deliver the ship in 2008. However, the delivery date was postponed to 2012 due to increase of scope of works; India was asked to make additional payment. New price (which has not been promulgated so far) was fixed in Dec 2009 after two years of negotiations. As for Indian media sources, the new contract cost $2.3 bln.
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