Guests
RT Guests
May 19, 2007, 6:20 Aleksandr Dugin
Aleksandr Dugin, a political analyst and the head of the Eurasia Movement, gave his view on the relationship between Russia and the EU.
May 19, 2007, 6:18 Aleksandr Lebedeff
The Rector of the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in Los Angeles, archpriest Aleksandr Lebedeff, shared with RT his thoughts on the re-unification of the Russian Orthodox Church.
May 19, 2007, 6:16 Vyacheslav Nikonov
Vyacheslav Nikonov, the President of Moscow-based "Politika" Foundation, commented for Russia Today on the atmosphere in which the current Russia-EU summit takes place and generally on the prospects of Russian-European relations.
May 19, 2007, 6:13 Andreus Romanos
Andreus Romanos, Chief Executive of the Association of European Businesses, joined Russia Today to comment on the business side of Russia-EU relations.
May 19, 2007, 6:10 Sergey Karaganov
Sergey Karaganov, from the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, commented for Russia Today on the "natural crisis of growth" which as he says Europe and Russia are facing.
"The dialogue between Europe and Russia is happening through difficult times.  As everybody says this is a natural crisis of growth. We had almost no dialogue seven or eight years ago. After Putin came we started a very intense dialogue. We actually made huge progress during these years. But in the meantime we have opened up new horizons and new problems," he said.
According to Sergey Karaganov, Europe has got itself into a middle-age crisis and it is getting weaker.
"It is getting weaker and doesn't know what to do with Russia now after everything we have reached. Russia has got stronger, but also doesn't know what it wants from the EU. So, we started to argue about very small issues. Some of them are constructive, like the visa problem - more and more Russians could travel much freer. We have so many problems. But unfortunately there are unsolved problems which are now on the table and they are dominating on the agenda, just because the strategic problems have been pushed away. We are not speaking about our common interests and we are talking about small differences. And bureaucrats are dominating our agenda instead of politicians," Mr Karaganov explained.
Sergey Karaganov also commented on the reasons for the crisis. "There are minor problems and minor reasons for this crisis; one of them is of course the fact that Europe has increased numbers and the expense of the so-called EU Europeans, some of whom are driven not by relational interest, but by historic idiosyncrasy. Some of them are listening not to Brussels, Rome or Paris, but to Washington. And Washington is not very much interested in close co-operation between Russia and the EU for quite understandable and rational reasons. And now also Washington, as we all know, is not interested in  further development of the European integration process, especially in the field of foreign policy and security because Europe is simply becoming too strong a competitor," the expert noted.
"We are probably having too many meetings at the top level. As far as I know and many specialists know, both sides are looking for a possibility to have only one summit a year, but real summit, two summits is too much. Both sides are uneasy how to decrease the number of the meetings without creating an impression that we are in a deep crisis. Maybe the meeting in Samara will push us towards much more constructive "one-a-year" format," Mr Karaganov said.

Earlier Sergey Karaganov joined Russia Today to speak about Russia’s stance on Iran’s nuclear programme.