What, to borrow from Lenin, is to be done? Who speaks for Russia? Pity Nicholas Sarkozy, of the economically mighty but militarily schizophrenic Europe. As the holder of the rotating EU Presidency, he was tasked with negotiating the end of Moscow's Georgia incursion. How does one negotiate with what can only be properly construed as a two-headed bear? From The New York Times:
"When Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, rushed to Moscow earlier this month to mediate the crisis over Georgia, he found the new Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, to be calm, even sanguine about prospects for a solution.
"But the tone was wildly different when Mr. Sarkozy heard from Vladimir V. Putin, the president-turned-prime minister. According to a private report that Mr. Sarkozy later delivered to President Bush, Mr. Putin was virulent in denouncing Georgian actions as atrocities, and he expressed such deep antipathy toward Georgian leaders that it made the war seem personal.
"Mr. Sarkozy’s report, made in a telephone call to President Bush on Aug. 13, has added to a sense of bewilderment in Washington about how to deal with what is now a two-headed government in Moscow — with Mr. Putin, still the dominant partner, occupying what is technically the subservient role."
More here.
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