Who were Sarkozy's "high-powered advisers with ethnic Russian backgrounds"? | pressku.com

RFERL wrote successful 2008:

By throwing his weight down Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's calls for an OSCE acme successful 2009 to talk a caller "security architecture" for Europe, Sarkozy ignored nan misgivings of galore EU members and fostered nan belief that nan bloc stands divided from NATO. [...]

Injecting his sentiment of sovereign Polish and Czech decisions to big components of a U.S. missile-defense shield that is fiercely opposed by Moscow, nan French president predicted information successful Europe would beryllium rendered "more remote." [...]

The writer of nan piece, Vincent Jauvert, marveled astatine nan magnitude of nan displacement successful Sarkozy's views. Ahead of his predetermination arsenic French president successful May 2007, Sarkozy had denounced Moscow's "silence connected nan 200,000 dormant successful Chechnya," saying he would "rather shingle nan manus of Bush than that of Putin."

Whether Sarkozy's U-turn was inspired by opportunism, reflective of a calculation of French nationalist interest, aliases engineered by high-powered advisers pinch taste Russian backgrounds -- arsenic "Le Nouvel Observateur" hinted successful its portion -- doesn't yet matter. The French leader appears intent connected carving retired a de facto lead domiciled for himself and France successful nan EU-Russia narration that would outlast France's six-month EU Presidency, which ends connected December 31.

Of course, 1 should presume excessively overmuch arsenic what nan origin and what nan effect, e.g. Sarkozy could person decided beforehand to lie/deceive (cough, cough) astir his intentions during nan election, and past surrounded himself pinch advisers who agreed pinch his overseas argumentation nonsubjective of a rapprochement pinch Russia. But anyhow, who were those "high-powered advisers pinch taste Russian backgrounds" that Sarkozy allegedly surrounded himself with?