{"id":286,"date":"2007-05-07T09:54:39","date_gmt":"2007-05-07T14:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=286"},"modified":"2007-05-07T09:54:39","modified_gmt":"2007-05-07T14:54:39","slug":"cheneys-man-on-the-seine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=286","title":{"rendered":"Cheney&#8217;s Man on the Seine?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>Is French President-elect Nicola<\/title>Is French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/04\/22\/AR2007042200657_pf.html\"> Bush&#8217;s lapdog<\/a>?\u00c2\u00a0 Cheney&#8217;s man on the Seine?\u00c2\u00a0 A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ynetnews.com\/articles\/0,7340,L-3396675,00.html\">Right  Zionist<\/a> in Paris?<\/p>\n<p>In the context of great power rivalry, Sarkozy says he favors the US over  Russia.\u00c2\u00a0 When he made the comment in mid-April 2007, <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/en.rian.ru\/world\/20070418\/63881878.html\">RIA Novosti<\/a><\/em>  took notice:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;If you want to know which one is closer to me &#8211; the U.S. or Russia,  \twhich we saw in action in Chechnya &#8211; I will say the U.S.,&#8221; the candidate  \tsaid&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I tell great powers, including the U.S., that they are mistaken because  \tthey have not signed the Kyoto Protocol and that they are wrong in Iraq. But  \twe have common values, such as democracy,&#8221; Sarkozy said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Setting aside perfidious talk about &#8220;common values&#8221; regarding democracy,  Sarkozy and Cheney may yet find at least enough common ground upon which to lay  gas pipelines, specifically the so-called NABUCCO pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Moscow Times<\/em> says &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/stories\/2007\/05\/04\/003.html\">Russia  Faces Rougher Ride After French Vote<\/a>&#8221; and notes that Sarkozy&#8211;like his  defeated opponent&#8211;favors NABUCCO.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sarkozy&#8230; support[s] the participation of state-owned Gaz de France&#8217;s  \tparticipation in the Nabucco pipeline, which would reduce Europe&#8217;s  \tdependency on Russian natural gas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In a mid-April debate among the three top contenders for the French  presidency, Sarkozy was the most outspoken in his support for NABUCCO.\u00c2\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/yahoo.reuters.com\/misc\/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=comktNews&#038;storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20070416:MTFH30139_2007-04-16_16-36-39_L16618396\"> Reuters<\/a> reported:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The [three candidates] all expressed support for the Nabucco pipeline  \tproject, due to ship Caspian natural gas from Turkey to Austria, reducing  \tEurope&#8217;s energy dependence on Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Sarkozy went further, saying he was prepared to accelerate the project, led  \tby Austrian oil firm OMV.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But Sarkozy is going to have to do a bit of backtracking from the campaign if  he is going find a place for France along the NABUCCO pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>Sarkozy&#8217;s relatively pro-American stance was decidedly <em>not<\/em> a  &#8220;populist&#8221; way to distinguish himself from fellow &#8220;Union for a Popular Movement  (UMP)&#8221; Gaullists, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and President Jacques  Chirac.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Sarkozy established his populist foreign policy<em> bona fides<\/em> by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=72308\">bashing  Turkey<\/a> and the idea of Turkish membership in the EU.<\/p>\n<p>There will have to be some fence mending with Turkey&#8211;especially among the  fiercely the nationalist military leaders that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/01834d72-fbe2-11db-93a4-000b5df10621.html\"> forced Turkey&#8217;s Islamic-backed foreign minister Abdullah Gul to withdraw his  Presidential candidacy<\/a>&#8211;if Sarkozy is going to restore plans for Gaz de  France to join the NABUCCO consortium.<\/p>\n<p>NABUCCO is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenewanatolian.com\/opinion-26263.html\">a  Turkish dream<\/a> for transporting Caspian Sea gas.\u00c2\u00a0 It is strongly  supported by <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=262\">the US<\/a>  and the EU:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span class=\"yazilar\">If it is built and made functional by 2012 as  \tintended, Nabucco can provide an estimated 15 percent of EU demand. The  \tBaku-Tiblis-Ceyhan pipeline was translated into reality from a dream. But  \twhat are the chances at this stage for the Nabucco Pipeline Project? The  \tidea was conceived in 2002, within the EU&#8217;s Common Energy Security policy.  \tIt will start from Georgia&#8217;s border with Turkey, then run a 3300 kilometer  \tstretch crossing Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, ending in Austria&#8230; Five  \tenergy companies have already signed up to build the pipeline, namely BOTAS  \tfrom Turkey, Bulgargas, Transgaz from Romania and Mol of Hungary.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>BOTAS Turkish state-owned pipeline company, has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=70512\">led the  opposition<\/a> to Gaz de France participation.<\/p>\n<p>If Sarkozy is going to position France as a core member of an anti-Russian  bloc in the EU, look for him to become decidedly more &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/55374310-fc82-11db-9971-000b5df10621.html\">pragmatic<\/a>&#8221;  in relations with Turkey.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is French President-elect NicolaIs French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy Bush&#8217;s lapdog?\u00c2\u00a0 Cheney&#8217;s man on the Seine?\u00c2\u00a0 A Right Zionist in Paris? In the context of great power rivalry, Sarkozy says he favors the US over Russia.\u00c2\u00a0 When he made the comment in mid-April 2007, RIA Novosti took notice: &#8220;If you want to know which one is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[33,25,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}