Russia to buy 20 percent of Airbus? EADS says no.

European news services are reporting that EADS is negotiating to sell Russia a 20 percent stake in its Airbus division. But EADS has issued a categorical denial that such discussions are taking place.

Sources in Moscow tell Capital, a French business magazine, that Russian Vice Prime Minister Boris Aleshin will travel to Paris for talks with EADS CEO Louis Gallois. The Kremlin-owned Vneshtorgbank (VTB) bought up 5 percent of EADS stock, an action that the regime of Vladimir Putin calls a "strategic action" on the part of the Russian state.

The Spanish financial news website Finanzas.com carries a report. Airbus and EADS CASA have substantial Airbus manufacturing facilities in Spain.

According to the report in Finanzas and other Spanish media, EADS rejected Russia's stated desire to buy up to 20 percent of the entire company, but now "has finished convincing its Russian interlocutors of another, more acceptable scheme: instead of increasing its stake in EADS - that manufactures strategic military materials - politically, Russia would be admitted with greater ease as an important shareholder of its civilian brother Airbus."

EADS insists to the Spanish news agency EFE that the report is untrue.