Moscow and its partners will join the World Trade Organization separately, Russia's chief trade negotiator said Friday, dropping an earlier pledge to enter the global body with two ex-Soviet neighbors.
In June, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stunned the West by saying Russia would stop its 16-year entry process and instead seek membership as a single customs union with the former Soviet republics of Belarus and Kazakhstan.
"A delegation of the customs union has informed the WTO members that they will continue accession de jure [legally] as sovereign countries," Russia's top trade negotiator Maxim Medvedkov said.
In comments released by the Economic Ministry, Medvedkov said joining as a single customs union would have led "to serious legal and procedural problems and could have considerably held up the completion of the talks."
Russia's decision in June to mount a joint entry bid was seen in the West as making the accession process even more difficult.
Last month, however, amid a general improvement in relations with Moscow, Washington said it was eager for Russia's entry into the WTO and promised "constructive support" toward that end.
WTO members have been informed of the decision by Russia and its partners after a round of consultations that ended in Geneva Friday, said Medvedkov, who also represents Belarus and Kazakhstan at the talks.
While the three countries would pursue separate entry bids, Russia will be in tight coordination with the two other ex-Soviet republics on issues related to the operations of the customs union, he said.
Analysts said Russia shot itself in the foot with Putin's June bombshell as it would essentially have had to start the accession talks from scratch.
The U.S. quickly rejected the plan as "unworkable" and WTO head Pascal Lamy said at that time Moscow's change of tack had caused considerable "perplexity" within the WTO.
In July, President Dmitry Medvedev backed away from Putin's pledge, saying joining separately was "simpler and more realistic," in what analysts took to be a rare example of the Kremlin chief being out of step with his powerful predecessor.
Russia, the only major economic power still outside the WTO, began negotiations to join in 1993, but talks have been marked by growing expressions of Russian frustration over the process.
Medvedkov said the decision to enter the global trade body separately wouldn't affect the three countries' intention to press ahead with the creation of a customs union between them.