Russia will seek guidance from the World Trade Organisation on how to proceed with accession talks with two former Soviet republics, Moscow's chief negotiator said on Thursday. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said this week that Russia was dropping its 16-year bid to unilaterally join the WTO and would only join in partnership with Belarus and Kazakhstan. "We would like to get a feeling from the WTO members on how the three countries as customs union members may continue their negotiations, not from scratch but from the point where we had stopped," Russian negotiator Maxim Medvedkov told Reuters. "What the new scheme will be, I do not know and I think no-one knows that because this is a new situation for the WTO," he said. "The forecast we made that Russia may become a member before the end of this year should be reviewed," he said. The bid by the three ex-Soviet countries to join the WTO as a customs union does not have precedents in the WTO history. Stefan Johannesson, who chairs the WTO's key working group on Russia's bid, said it may delay accession. "I will not give any new forecasts but it is clear that it (new accession talks) will take more than one or two months," Medvedkov said.
