EU-Russia: different political cultures, one Europe

10 Sep, 2009 18:44 / Updated 14 years ago

Russia-EU relations, and prospects for visa-free travel, are just some of the questions up for discussion at next week’s international security conference in the Central Russian city of Yaroslavl.

Speaking to RT during the lead-up to the event, international relations expert Thierry de Montbrial said Moscow and the West have deep misunderstandings to overcome.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of misunderstandings between Russia and the West, which is based on ideological considerations. The West, on the whole, continues to insist on propagating democracy, human rights and so on and so forth. We should stop constantly preaching about what you should do,” Thierry de Montbrial said.

"But the fact that we do not have the same kind of political regimes, for instance, does not mean that we should not cooperate internationally on some major issues,” Thierry de Montbrial concluded.

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