Interviews

Infotags exclusive interview with H.E. Excellency Mr. John Mitchell, Deputy Head of the British Embassy to Moldova.

It has been just over a month since the European Union attempted to draw six post-Soviet neighbors -- Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia -- closer to its orbit with its Eastern Partnership program. But a new report by the European Council on Foreign Relations blasts the EU for what it calls its "complacent" and "long-term" strategy in the region, and warns that without fast action to engage the eastern neighbors.

In the context of the recent political events that took place in Chisinau, the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives IDIS „Viitorul” carried out a study entitled Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation - an obstacle in the development of democracy in the post-soviet region” http://www.viitorul.org/lib.php?l=ro&idc=296. This research offers a detailed analysis of the reasons for the failure of democratic transition in the post-soviet region with a special focus on external factors.

Jonathan Steele is senior foreign correspondent and a columnist for British daily The Guardian, where he has worked for several decades. Mr. Steele was a frequent visitor to the Soviet Union in the 1970s, as a Guardian reporter. He became the paper's Washington correspondent in the second half of the 1970s, and headed The Guardian's Moscow office between 1988 and 1994. Mr. Steele was therefore able to witness the perestroika in the Soviet Union and the subsequent appearance of post-Soviet states as the U.S.S.R. crumbled. He has written aand continues to report on conflicts in Central America, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Iraq (which he has visited nine times since the beginning of the American military intervention).

The Czech Republic is a strong supporter of the Moldovas European integration policy. Consequently, Moldova considers the Czech Republic as being one of the most important partners within the EU. How would you evaluate the current stage of the partnership between our countries? What has been achieved? What are the perspectives of the Moldovan-Czech Cooperation?