Exclusive interview with Zoran Zaev, the prime minister of the Republic of Macedonia. Interviewer: Adam Reichardt

ADAM REICHARDT: You have been in power now since May 2017, with a promise to change the direction of Macedonian politics, including its European and NATO future. This was highlighted in your recent trip to Brussels to lobby on your country’s behalf. Can you give our readers some insight on how you plan to bring Macedonia back on the European path and what are the challenges you see ahead?

ZORAN ZAEV: My country went through a very difficult political crisis. A very big part of this crisis was the frustration that the society felt for the delayed European and NATO integration of the country. In 2005 we received candidate EU status, but nothing else beyond that. In 2008 Greece did not agree with our NATO membership at the Bucharest Summit. Now that we have emerged from this political crisis, our citizens’ expectations are very high that we will get the country back on track. This is what has been happening in the past six months. The new government has set strategic priorities for the upcoming period. This includes entering NATO – becoming a full NATO member – and then starting the negotiations for EU membership.

An interview with Bobo Lo, expert on Russia and China and author of the books Russia and the New World Disorder and A Wary Embrace: What the China-Russia relationship means for the world. Interviewer: Adam Reichardt

ADAM REICHARDT: It has been two years since you published Russia and the New World Disorder in which you concluded that Russian foreign policy is not well suited for the current geopolitical context. Yet, if we look at Russia since 2015, it has projected itself as a strong country, one that can defend against sanctions, intervene in Syria, advance its interests in its near abroad and project an image of itself as a real global player. Would you still argue that same thesis today?

BOBO LO: This is a question I often get asked. I stand by my original thesis. True, Russia is not going to become a minor power straight away, the regime will not collapse anytime soon, and Russia will not buckle under western pressure and be forced into concessions. However, we need to look at Russia and the world in the longer term. What will happen over the next decade, two decades, three decades and beyond? Can Russia adapt to a world that is changing in all sorts of uncontrollable and unpredictable ways? This is about much more than just Russia’s interaction with the United States, the United Kingdom, France or Germany. It is about whether it can operate effectively in a more complex, disaggregated and disorderly international environment crowded with competitors – not just the West and China, but many others as well.

Populism appears to be gaining traction on both sides of the Atlantic with some leaders seizing the opportunity. Who or what will defend our present values and political establishments to bring us back to where we were before we lost ground? What are the risks to the trans-Atlantic partnership? Does the rise of populism mean […]

An interview with Wojciech Jakóbik, editor in chief of BiznesAlert.pl. Interviewer: Adam Reichardt.

Interview with Roman Shutov, programme director with Detektor Media in Kyiv. Interviewer: Adam Reichardt.

Interview with Anders Åslund, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Interviewer Adam Reichardt.

A Review of Putin’s Propaganda Machine. Soft power and Russian foreign policy. By: Marcel Van Herpen. Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, USA, 2016. 

In July 2009, a few months after the inauguration of US President Barack Obama, a letter was published to the new American president in the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. Signed by current and former heads of states and leading intellectuals from Central and Eastern Europe, the letter was meant to be a warning to the new American administration. Despite the success of the region’s rapprochement with the West, the authors felt there was still much work to be done. “20 years after the end of the Cold War,” the authors wrote, “we see that Central and Eastern Europe … is a part of the world that Americans have largely stopped worrying about.” They cautioned it was too premature to “assume that the region's transatlantic orientation, as well as its stability and prosperity, would last forever.”

The fates of Europe and Ukraine converge on May 25th, as both societies go to the polls.

On May 25^th 2014, Europeans go to the polls in one of the most significant elections in the continent’s history. Of course, I am not only referring to the European Parliamentary elections, but also the presidential elections that are taking place in Ukraine – a country whose people have decided on a European path.

Interview with Andrew Wilson, University College London. Interviewer: Adam Reichardt

ADAM REICHARDT: The Russian aggression in Crimea has been strongly condemned in the West with the United States, United Kingdom, France and others suggesting even a boycott of the G8 summit in Sochi. Do you feel that the Western response so far has been adequate?

ANDREW WILSON: So far, indeed yes. Some would say that Russia should be kicked out of the G8 altogether. For those who want the lines of communication open, perhaps that’s too strong a measure, but the G7 can meet on its own without Russia.

 Photo by Wojciech Koźmic

This past week was a turning point in Ukraine’s months-long protests dubbed the “EuroMaidan”. The developments, however, have taken a turn for the worse. As the protests began losing steam and the endurance of the protesters waned, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament, took some draconian legislative actions aimed at deterring the protests and criminalising their activities. After the Verkhovna Rada passed this year’s state budget without any debate, it proceeded to adopt new provisions to Ukraine’s criminal code that severely limit public assembly and opposition. Many have criticised these laws as being anti-democratic and in violation of Ukraine’s Constitution. The Parliament contends that these measures are necessary to ensure public safety.

ADAM REICHARDT: The European Endowment for Democracy has emerged as an initiative credited to the Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski. How would you describe the origins and aims of this organisation? JERZY POMIANOWSKI: The initiative as we see it now and as it has developed during the last two years was brought to the attention […]