Did Sarkozy scupper his own peace plan in re Georgia (2008)?

Question

The Guardian quotes a response to Sarkozy's remarks on Ukraine:

Responding to Sarkozy’s Ukraine remarks, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the former Estonian president, used even less diplomatic language to describe the former French president. “After his own 2008 Georgia ‘peace plan’, which he himself scuppered a month later to restore the EU-RU cooperation agreement, he’s France’s most mendacious postwar foreign policy president. On Russia, venal as hell. Why take this clown seriously?” Ilves tweeted.

Did Sarkozy scupper his own peace plan in re Georgia in 2008? (What was that plan exactly? And what did Sarkozy do in the months after proposing it?)

Answer 1

I might be wrong, but what is meant here by "peace plan" is really the ceasefire agreement that Nicholas Sarkozy, then the president of France, negotiated between Russia and Georgia. The terms of this 6-point plan are well known:

• No recourse to the use of force
• Definitive cessation of hostilities
• Free access to humanitarian aid (and to allow the return of refugees)
• Georgian military forces must withdraw to their normal bases of encampment
• Russian military forces must withdraw to the lines prior to the start of hostilities. While awaiting an international mechanism, Russian peacekeeping forces will implement additional security measures (six months)
• Opening of international discussions on the modalities of lasting security in Abkhazia and South Ossetia (based on the decisions of the U.N. and the OSCE)

A full discussion of the agreement from the US point of view can be found here: IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW: SIX-POINT CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND GEORGIA

The agreement looks innocent to an outsider, but was readily criticized by Estonians and Polish (link in French), as

• the plan does not mention respecting Georgian sovereignty (over the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia)
• it does not impose full withdrawal of the Russian forces (Russian forces were acting as peace-keepers in the breakaway regions, and their withdrawal to previous positions meant that they continued to be present in these territories.)

Later in the same year Sarkozy collaborated with Russian president Medvedev on the pan-European security pact - as opposed to the extension of the American missile shield in Central Europe. Arriving so quickly after the conflict between Russia and Georgia, this was not well perceived in Eastern Europe or Washington:

The French alignment with Russian aims will upset pro-US leaders in western and eastern Europe, but will enjoy support in Germany and Italy, which are eager to draw Russia in as a partner despite the recent invasion of Georgia.

Yesterday's summit ordered the resumptions of negotiations on a new strategic pact governing relations between Russia and Europe - talks that the EU called off in protest at Russia's invasion of Georgia in August.

In September the Europeans set Moscow an ultimatum for re-opening the talks, demanding that Russian troop positions and numbers be returned to the pre-conflict levels. Russia has ignored the European terms. But yesterday's summit glossed over that.

"It's as if the military intervention in Georgia never happened. The EU is sending a dangerous signal of weakness," said David Clark, chair of the Russia Foundation, who was an adviser to the former British foreign secretary Robin Cook.

Sarkozy plan did produce a ceasefire, for which he was nominated for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize... which was eventually awarded to Barack Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

Answer 2

I suppose it depends what one sees as part of the plan. Reuters mentioned on Aug 27 that

Sarkozy called for international monitors to replace Russian patrols around the rebel region of South Ossetia as quickly as possible, and for talks on "security and stability modalities" there and in the region of Abkhazia to start quickly.

Each of those points matched one from his peace plan which has yet to be fully implemented, a lack of success which has raised doubts about whether the agreement is still alive.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating six-month EU presidency, also stepped up his criticism of Russia's recognition on Tuesday of the two provinces.

"This decision, which aims to change Georgia's borders unilaterally, is simply unacceptable," Sarkozy said.

Clearly international peacekeepers didn't replace the Russian forces. And Russia didn't rescind recognition of those republics. Whether that was actually part of Sarkozy's "peace plan" (since it wasn't something that Medvedev signed up to) or merely discourse aimed to emphasize the difference of opinions/vision.. is anybody's guess.

Anyhow, Ilves refers to the EU starting talks with Russia on a new agreement, which also happened in 2008. However, according to Russia

The negotiations started in July 2008. Twelve negotiation rounds have taken place. At an extraordinary meeting on 6 March 2014 leaders of the EU Member States decided to suspend bilateral talks with Russia on the New Agreement «in connection with the situation in Ukraine».

So those negotiations had started a bit before the Georgia war. Another Russian page from April mentioned that

The EU and Russia agreed to hold the ninth meeting of the EU-Russia PPC [Permanent Partnership Council] on Freedom, Security and Justice in October 2008 in France.

That meeting was held as planned despite the apparent disagreements over Georgia. Whether that can be taken as Sarkozy abandoning his demands/vision (meaning those that Medvedev didn't agree to), or whether that was merely an ack that those were not realistic/realpolitik... is in eye of the beholder. I wasn't able to find any statement from Sarkozy whether he conditioned any EU (or France) cooperation with Russia on those stricter demands he made outside of the six points agreed with Medvedev.

Furthermore, an EU page mentions that there was in fact more than one document involved, even in that peace plan more narrowly construed:

The exact status of the Sarkozy-Medvedev agreement of 8 September has led to some controversy. While the international community and the Georgian authorities insist that the 8 September agreement outlines the first phase of the implementation of the 12 August Ceasefire agreement and in no manner supersedes it, the Russian position seems to be that this agreement replaces certain aspects of the Ceasefire agreement most notably with regard to the withdrawal of Russian troops. This was also clear during the Assembly’s debate on 2 October 2008 on the consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia, when the Russian delegation sought to replace references to the Ceasefire agreement with references to the “Sarkozy-Medvedev” agreement of 8 September 2008.

And in 2009 Russia scuppered the OSCE and UN missions in Georgia by voting against the continuation of those. The EUMM was also denied access to Russia/separatist controlled territories. However that's probably not something attributable directly to Sarkozy, unless you want to consider that he didn't seem to envision any countermeasures for those moves.