Russia could wrap up talks on joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the spring of next year after more than a decade of troubled negotiations, a senior Moscow official said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. But to achieve that target discussions with current WTO member countries would have to be intensified, Moscow's chief WTO negotiator Maxim Medvedkov told reporters. "It is our real strategic aim to complete this negotiation as soon as possible," Medvedkov said after several days of bilateral talks and discussions within a WTO working party preparing an accession agreement for Russia. "It is clear it is possible to do it next year -- perhaps in the spring. But we and our partners have to be fully engaged to achieve that." Russia, a major energy producer that has seen its trade weight boom amid soaring world oil prices, is the biggest power still outside the currently 148-member WTO, which acts as a forum for international negotiations and a trade watchdog.
