[nohouan]

I used to live in Saint-Nazaire, where the shipyards there built the Mistrals. They probably don't have characteristics some russians would want (well, simply put, they are not russian) but they really are good ships, nontheless. They fit french mission requirements perfectly. From my understanding, it was more a problem of not having time of testing an entirely new class, while they still needed some.
I am not sure the transfer to Russia has been finalized, though...

Now about the new russian subs, I would tend to agree with Ikagulin and Jimbuna : Those new subs could be too expensive to operate in the long run, even with their multi-mission flexibility. The first sub that was really overkill in design when I was a kid was the Seawolf. They had to cut the orders and rethink the design as mission requirements changed.