Putin’s Pal on the French Right Wing
Imagine that (a) the Boeing aircraft company launched a major initiative doing business with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, (b) Boeing was run by Pat Buchanan, who was one of the world’s 100 wealthiest individuals, and (c) Buchanan owned the New York Times.
Now imagine the Times’ pages suddenly start overflowing with praise for Putin. Would you find that suspicious and worrying?
This scenario is not hypothetical: it’s happening in France.
Their Dassault Systems struck a major deal with Russian helicopter manufacturer Kamov, operates a significant and expanding business office in Russia, and owns the French “paper of record” Le Figaro, number two in circulation nationwide. The French government is in the process of attempting to sell Russia a $750 million warship to shore up Russia’s rusty, creaking pseudo-navy, causing many of Russia’s neighbors to lose much sleep. French President Nicolas Sarkozy owns a Dassault luxury jet, which he named after his wife, and French private jets have been in vogue with the Kremlin-friendly Russian oligarchs for years.
And what do you know?! Open the pages of Le Figaro and you will find coverage that Robert Amsterdam, attorney for persecuted oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, calls “tendentious sycophancy.” When Putin himself actually came to town, Le Figaro almost peed in its journalistic pants.
Publishing an op-ed piece by the head of Russia’s Gazprom state-owned natural gas monopoly to welcome Putin, Le Figaro urged France to become even more dependent on Russian energy, not less. It argued that France should be delighted by the Putin dictatorship, which it believes will rule Russia until at least 2024, since it offers stability and predictability. It called the sham “presidency” of Dmitry Medvedev a “tandemocracy” based on “pragmatism.” And most importantly, it totally ignored the horrifying series of murders of political opponents of the regime, including most recently the attorney Sergei Magnitsky — murders that Le Figaro’s competition Le Monde highlighted prominently.
well at first glance, it’s a misinformed article for almost of the statements
What jumpted into my eyes first, Sarkozy doesn’t own a private jet, but the presidency does !
Also, Serge Dassault isn’t possibly Pat Buchanan, cuz he is a french Jew
France has the right to sell helicopters and Navy ships to Russia, up to now it isn’t under an embargo from the UN,and Russia isn’t a soviet country anymore like Israel also sells drones to Russia !
Do you want me to enumerate to which countries the US sells arms and jet fighters to too ?
Also France doesn’t need Russian gaz, our energy is producted by nuclear reactors at 83%, we also own Sahara oil sites
BTW Do you know that France also sells helicopters, and many other army stuffs to the US too?
Also I’m am not sure that Serge Dassault owns the “Figaro” today, his father did though
OK, I digged into your sources, they are second hand’s, if not third’s….
can you manage to read french, and “le figaro” by yourself ?
“quelqu’un m’a dit” ben tu vas être modérée !
Marie Claude,
Kimmy Zigfeld who claims to be a young female writer from New York City is in fact probably a middle aged male sitting at a computer at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington D.C. And their m.o. is to smear anyone in the West who seems to “friendly” with the once and perpetual Evil Empire. Twenty years after the Cold War ended these old farts really have nothing else to do, but keep convincing their senile donors (and maybe some of the folks behind Saakashvili/Yuschenko) to keep the checks coming.
“Imagine that (a) the Boeing aircraft company launched a major initiative doing business with Vladimir Putin’s Russia” LOL…Boeing already has several thousand employees in Russia and is supplying components to the Sukhoi Superjet. This is all open source. Ziggy is so tunnel vision into smearing “she” forgot.
Great point too on the French allegedly being addicted to Russian gas. EDF is interested in Southstream because they want to make money selling Russian gas to Italian utilities, plain and simple…especially since gas will be the fuel of choice if all this climate hopey changey stuff goes through.
FYI, I don’t think Kimmy has decided yet if evil Russia is against Copenhagen because it’s the world’s largest combined oil and gas producer and wants to cripple the American economy, or if evil Russia opposes Copenhagen/Kyoto since the hackers who leaked the AGW documents from East Anglia used a Russian IP. So she’s staying silent on that one, though she’s already slammed George Soros for dumping Saako and Yuschenko as the losers that they are and shifting tactics in Eastern Europe.
Kimmy’s employers latest spin is that all the shale gas in North America, especially from the U.S., means that at last Europe will break free from its hateful addiction to Russian gas, what with all that cheap LNG from Qatar. What she and the Wall Street Journal won’t say is that cheap gas prices makes boondoggles like Nabucco even less economically viable than they already were. But it was never about the economics, it was always about bypassing Russia at all costs, getting some return on the investment in the invasion of Iraq, and possibly dangling a carrot in front of the mullahs, even if they would take the cash that would otherwise go to Russia (we can’t have that ZBig) and build nukes anyway.
These people are so fanatically anti-Russia they would cut off their noses to spite their faces.
On the arms sales I truly believe some D.C. think tanks, like the Center for Security Policy, are indirectly receiving kickbacks on the weapons sales to Georgia. Look at their military industrial complex board members paying salaries for honchos like Frank Gaffney to bloviate and get $500,000 a year salary plus travel expenses.
The fact that the Georgians themselves cannot possibly afford $100 million for new arms should tell you all you need to know about Saako’s regime. It is simply a project and the Georgian people are pawns for the folks who want to fight Russia to the last Georgian and Ukrainian.
Mr X, I don’t care for whom Kim is working, probably for a lobby that has interest to find some headlouses in France’s hair, Russia is of course the ever useful “enemi”
Now, She should also investigate which other countries trade with Russia, Germany is a much bigger partner, Italy is another one, Austria… and don’t forget the smartest’s, the perfid Brits !
As far as me, I’m not spitting into the russian soup, a St Petersburg investor saved one of my place manufactury from bankrupting ! I reassure her, it isn’t an arms factury but a traditional artesans one, which used to sell its goodies to Americans when they still had money to spend for luxery porcellanery
Mr X, BTW, I bought a St Petersburg thea service from them, like one of the Romanov that was in use in their palace. But it’s in a “vitrine”. I like to collect beautiful “vaisselle”
Pat Buchanan is excellent commentator and writer whose only crime was being about 15 years ahead of his time in 1992. Calling him an ultraconservative wacko is uncalled for.
Marie Claude,
When you bring up who pays the bills, Kimmy Ziggy never responds. Ever. And that’s the giveaway. A crank in their basement wouldn’t resist the troll bait.
Of course the Germans do more biz in Russia than anyone else.
Mr X, I understand your motivation, I was at the same level just a few years ago, please don’t resign on that site, explanations are aways better than rumors. I measure the distances since I undertake to counter any erronned facts about us. Of course, I may be taxed of excessive patriotism, or anything else, that some would label as arrogance, but nevermind, informations make their path
Kim Zigfelds blog brings a huge amount of information about the Russians. Those who defend the Russians mostly engage in general complaining. When I was very young, a mature, nice neighbor lady said, “The Russians are natural born vicious”. We laughed at her. We aren’t laughing any more.
uh, may-be this has a rather certain importance :
Do you think that the 15000 officials should avoid the prostitutes in Copenhagen ?
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2009/12/06/01011-20091206FILWWW00045-des-prostituees-gratuites-a-copenhague.php
Kim Zigfeld: listen your article was meaningless… Marie and Mr. X are 100% correct..
Mr. X toy are correct that she is a he!!!!! and I bet you a drag queen!!! hot baby! Hot!!!