You're reading: Putin hopes Ukraine will ratify agreement on CIS free trade zone

YALTA - Ukraine has not yet ratified the agreement on a free trade zone in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) despite being its initiator, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, July 12.

“Ukraine always prevailed as regards that issue, and it eventually
pressed us into signing and ratifying it. We did it, but Ukraine has
not,” he said. He expressed hope that this would happen after all.

Yanukovych, for his part, said he hoped the agreement would be
ratified in the near future and blamed the delay on “internal state
formalities”.