Friends or pawns? Sarkozy is falling into Putin's trap, says analyst
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with his 'old' friend Vladimir Putin on Thursday, in a visit that has set tongues wagging about Sarkozy's real motives. The Socialist government has criticized his attempts to wage a 'parallel diplomacy,' at a time when Paris and Moscow are at loggerheads over the Syrian conflict.
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Officially, the visit was planned months ago. It's the former leader's third trip since he was defeated in 2012. He's believed to have been invited to speak at one of the local universities. For free this time, his entourage insisted.
However, it's another meeting on his agenda that has come under fierce scrutiny: that with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
France's political establishment has cried out 'foul play', underscoring concerns the former French President is trying to undermine François Hollande's diplomatic efforts.
Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, says this is unlikely: "The diplomatic efforts of France at the moment, particularly in Syria, are efforts conducted by the government, by the president, by the foreign minister, and therefore a private visit by a politician, no matter his calibre, cannot have much influence."
Hollande's government is nonetheless weary of Putin. His annexation of Crimea last year and support of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine have not helped matters.
Paris and Moscow have been at loggerheads since, causing Hollande to scrap a lucrative arms sale of two Mistral warships to Russia.
Now, Sarkozy wants Hollande to change his hardline stance and is calling for a conciliatory approach.
"The world needs Russia," he said during a one-to-one meeting with his old 'friend'. "Russia is absolutely necessary, especially when it comes to the Syrian conflict," Sarkozy said.
But Hollande’s government has been one of the strongest Western opponents of involving Bachar Al-Assad in any solution to the Syria conflict.
Yet many people see Moscow's recent military intervention in Syria as propping up the Assad regime.
"It is utterly unthinkable for France to cooperate with a country whose sole purpose is to shore up the Assad regime", former Prime minister Alain Juppé, who is also rival for the flagbearership of the Republicains party, told French daily Le Figaro."
Since Russian warplanes began bombarding Syria at the end of last month - officially to target Islamic State positions, but which appear to only be hitting opposition groups opposed to Assad - criticism has mounted against Vladimir Putin.
But not with Nicolas Sarkozy. He's forsaken his pro-West credentials and is now looking east. A strategy welcomed by Putin according to Pierini.
"Russia wants to make a statement on the world scene and wants to shape the world order."
Despite the media frenzy generated by Sarkozy's visit to Moscow, where he's scheduled to speak to the French press this evening, Pierini suggests that he may be pandering to Putin's propaganda machine instead.
"From Moscow's point of view, when you are in such a diplomatic battle on the world scene with all the western powers, any publicity is good. So they know very well, that whatever former President Sarkozy says, will not have any influence on the events in the coming weeks, especially in Syria, but it hits the news so it's good for Putin," he said.
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