Publication

Sixteen years after it first submitted its bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Russia has thrown the process into complete confusion. First Prime Minister Putin declared in June that Russia's application was to be withdrawn, in favour of a joint application with Belarus and Kazakhstan with whom it plans to establish a customs union in January 2010. Then President Medvedev at the G8 summit in Italy on 10 July said that Russia could join in either of two ways, jointly with Belarus and Kazakhstan or separately, the latter course being "simpler and more realistic".