Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won another victory for his aggressive energy diplomacy strategy yesterday, signing a deal bringing French investment to a pipeline project.
In a successful trip that worried Russia's nervous neighbours, Mr Putin also secured French investment to save the struggling Lada car maker and a promise that France will consider selling Moscow a huge amphibious assault ship.
"We have embarked upon complete cooperation with Russia," French Prime Minister François Fillon declared, as he and Mr Putin addressed reporters after talks outside Paris with ministers and energy executives.
Georgia and the Baltic states have expressed concern over Russia's bid to buy a Mistral-class warship - an unprecedented military deal between Moscow and a Nato member - but Mr Fillon insisted it remained on the table.
Mr Fillon said that, while "perfectly respecting" Georgia's position, France wants a "common economic and human space between Russia and the European Union" and is negotiating with Moscow to seek a common European security strategy.
"France is open to this cooperation with Russia, including in defence," he said, confirming that Paris is studying Russia's request to buy the ship.
The gas accord hooks another Western power into Moscow's plan to build two huge undersea pipelines to European markets, bypassing former Soviet satellites in eastern Europe and increasing Western reliance on Russian fuel.
"An accord has just been signed between EDF and Gazprom on the entry of the French company in a great international transport project, the construction of a gas pipeline under the Black Sea," Mr Putin said.
According to Gazprom, French energy giant EDF will take a 10 per cent stake in the project, which is designed to pump gas from central Russia into Italy and southeastern Europe, bypassing Ukraine and Belarus.
Italy's ENI is already a partner in South Stream, while German firms are working with Russia on a second pipeline, Nord Stream, that runs under the Baltic Sea to western gas markets, again bypassing eastern Europe.
The French energy giant GDF-Suez confirmed it was in talks to buy a nine percent stake in Nord Stream "which should contribute to the continuous strengthening of cooperation between Gazprom and GDF-Suez."
Meanwhile, in a third victory for Mr Putin, French auto maker Renault signed a deal on to rescue its struggling Russian partner Avtovaz with €240 million in new investments.
The arrival in St Petersburg this week of the Mistral, a French naval command vessel of the type that Mr Putin hopes to buy, increased regional fears that Russia is seeking to project its might beyond its borders.
The Mistral is a 21,000-tonne, 200-metre amphibious assault ship that can carry heavy-lift helicopters, landing craft, tanks and up to 900 commandos. It is the second largest vessel in the French fleet.
Russia wants to buy one copy of the Mistral new from France and reportedly may then build four more under licence.
France's EU partners in the Baltic - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - and EU and Nato candidate Georgia have expressed concerns over the deal, amid fears it will encourage Russia to throw its weight about in its region.
EU members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that won independence in 1991 on the break-up of the Soviet Union, still have tense relations with Moscow.
"France is our strategic EU and Nato partner and we hope France will make an appropriate decision," Latvian foreign ministry spokesman Rets Plesums said.
Senior Latvian defence ministry aide Airis Rikveilis told the Baltic News Service that Riga was planning "serious consultations" with Nato on the issue.
If the purchase gets the go ahead - reportedly at a cost to Moscow of up to 500 million euros - it will be the first time that a Nato power has agreed to transfer modern military technology to Russia.
For his part, Mr Putin said Russia had not yet taken any decision on buying the warship, but insisted that Russians would deploy any weapon systems that they buy "wherever they think it necessary."
Georgia, an EU and Nato candidate state in the Caucasus, fought and lost a short but fierce war last year with Russia over two breakaway regions.
Georgian expatriates and sympathisers demonstrated in Paris during Putin's visit, and on the eve of the talks Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vachadze expressed grave concern over the warship sale at a Paris seminar.