Word: russia
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...need you for peace, like on Iran,' but then say, 'We don't trust you'? That would be totally inconsistent," Sarkozy tartly said on Monday night, when he was questioned by reporters on the sale. "We want to turn the page on the Cold War." (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory...
...Selling Russia warships is certainly a nifty way of doing that. But some observers think the naval deal is being used as bait by Sarkozy to secure France wider-ranging business deals with Russia. During Medvedev's Paris trip, for example, the Russian energy giant Gazprom signed a contract with Paris-based GDF Suez to give the French company a 9% stake in the Nord Stream natural-gas pipeline and up to 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas by 2015. Nord Stream had previously been exclusively a Russo-German affair - one of many deals that other European countries and companies...
...This is in large part Sarkozy sprinting to close the lead the Germans and Italians got early on by putting politics aside in order to cut energy deals with Russia," says Fabio Liberti, an expert on Russia and European affairs at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris. "Sarkozy also knows Europe's defense industry is still largely divided along national lines and appears destined for huge restructuring and consolidation. The nation with the biggest contracts out will get the biggest slice of that consolidated European pie - which is why neither the Mistral deal nor Russia...
...warmer Franco-Russian feelings notwithstanding, reminders of Russia's independence - and frequent defiance of the West - remained apparent this week in Paris. Following Sarkozy's rather fiery remarks that a France-Russia partnership could help establish a new hard line on Iran's nuclear program, Medvedev responded tepidly, saying, "We will concentrate all efforts on finding political and diplomatic solutions," which he added had "not been exhausted yet." For his part, Sarkozy noted during the visit that Russia has still not fulfilled the conditions of its 2008 cease-fire with Georgia. (See pictures of the Russians in Ossetia...
Still, Liberti says Sarkozy's overtures may bear fruit in the longer run - especially considering the perceptions in both countries that the Obama Administration has little interest in Europe or Russia. "That's a gap in which Sarkozy could create a special Franco-Russian relationship, which over time could be expanded to establish a wider economic and security arrangement between Europe and Russia," Liberti explains. Such a development would behoove both sides - and mark a rare case of a good collective result arising from individual cynicism...