Putin Hopes Russia will Join WTO This Year
All the main issues have already been resolved "with all the main partners", but political issues are still remaining delaying Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, Russia’s PM Vladimir Putin said.
He said in an interview with the Chinese television and Xinhua news agency on October 11: "We hope that we will be able to complete this process this year. On our part we have done everything for this."
"I am sure today the issue is a political one and it depends on our main partners," Putin said referring to the United States and the EU.
Last week Putin called on the United States and the EU to press Georgia to remove its objection to Russia’s WTO entry.
"I have a question: do our main partners in Europe and the United States want Russia to become a member of the WTO or not?" Putin said, adding that the U.S. and EU should not "hide behind the issue of the Georgians."
"If they want to, they can accomplish this very fast," Putin said on October 6.
Georgia said that last round of the Swiss-mediated talks with Russia over its WTO entry terms last week ended without any results, blaming Moscow of unwillingness to compromise. Tbilisi wants international monitoring of trade across disputed borders in its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.