Russia will cease free-trade agreements with Ukraine within the Commonwealth of Independent States framework on Jan 1, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at an annual conference in Moscow on Thursday.
Putin expressed regret over the deterioration of Russia-Ukraine economic and trade relations. He said that Russia was not imposing sanctions against Ukraine but adopting a system favorable to the Russian business industry. Therefore, Ukraine would no longer enjoy any preferential treatment.
“In practice, it means that the zero tariff for Ukraine would reach six, three, eight, and even 10 percent. We have no other choice. We have tried to stop all these things from happening,” said Vladimir Putin, Russian President.
Putin also stated that the Ukrainian government did not meet the expectations of Ukrainian people and fulfill the Minsk Protocol, which called for an end to the conflict in September last year.
“Frankly, we have no interests in aggravating the conflict. On the contrary, what we feel interested in is to solve the conflict as soon as possible, which will not be done by killing Ukrainians living in southeast Ukraine,” said Putin.
With Russia hoping to export its natural gas via Ukraine, Putin said that this was just a purely business issue. However, it required Ukrainian companies to provide a solid gas transportation system which would be a marketable operation meeting the highest-standard of regulations.
For the U.S. presidential election, Putin said that Russia was an open country and willing to develop its relationship with the US.
“No matter who becomes (the next president of the US), we are all ready to develop our relationship with the US. The latest visit of the U.S. Secretary of State showed that the US also intends to solve some problems together with Russia, which requires the cooperation of both countries,” said Putin.
Putin also welcomed the US to embrace such an attitude, however, he maintained Russia would not accept the comments or interference on Russian domestic issues. (CCTV/Reuters)
