Russia still wants to see Ukraine in the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and a single economic space Sergei Glazyev, the secretary at large of the Customs Union, has said.
"We see the ‘three plus one’ formula of President Yanukovych as the resumption of the full-scale participation of Ukraine in the formation and development of our common economic space," he said in Kyiv on Wednesday at the Forum of Regions of Ukraine and Ural Federal District II.
He said that work on the formation of common customs rules on the Russian-Kazakh and Russian-Belarusian borders is being finished, and the next stage will be the formation of a single economic space and a switch to the common market of goods and services.
He said that Ukraine was at ground zero of the economic integration and formation of the single economic space and Russia expects that full-scale participation of Ukraine in the processes will resume.
"Despite the fact that EU officials believe that the participation of Ukraine in the Customs Union is unacceptable, we still expect that common sense, sober economic providence, the understanding of the public and success of our cooperation will prevail," Glazyev said.
He said that Russia does not know what conditions the European Union is offering to Ukraine on the creation of a free trade zone. He said that Russia and Ukraine need to agree on EU integration policy.
"We should be confident that EU integration will give us a common positive economic effect, and it would be important for us to agree the policy in this aspect and have common positions," he said.
Glazyev also said that the Customs Union is holding talks with the European Union, and participants of the talks are ready to join efforts with Ukraine.
The Forum of Regions of Ukraine and Ural Federal District II opened in Kyiv on Wednesday.
