Congressman Tom Lantos, the Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, has recently said he is glad that the era of Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder is over.

A political analyst, Prof. Andranik Migranyan from Moscow State University of International Relations says Mr Lantos' remarks are indicative of American foreign policy.

“It was a non-diplomatic, very rude and humiliating statement, made by an American Congressman. It proves that today’s America doesn’t need any real partner. They need a satellite. And if Mr Schroeder and Mr Chirac didn’t want to be puppets led by American government and Mr Bush – it means that they acted in an anti-democratic and anti-American way. It is very ridiculous. Tom Lantos belongs to the Democratic Party now. The Democratic Party is against the war in Iraq. The Democratic Party demands to withdraw American troops from Iraq. It means – logically speaking – that he has to thank Mr Schroeder and Mr Chirac that they warned American Administration not to do stupid things of this kind in foreign policy,” he supposes.