Moscow, June 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Nobody should be forced to join the Belarusian-Kazakh-Russian Customs Union, but Russia will protect interests of its producers, said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
"There is no politics here. Ukraine should decide for itself whether it is advantageous to it or not," Putin said following negotiations with Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
Ukraine is currently considering accession to a free trade zone with the European Union, he said.
Putin suggested that there could be a situation in which the EU could restrict some sensitive Ukrainian-made products from entering its market, while Ukraine would have to open its market to European goods.
"What will we have to do then? We will have to protect the Customs Union’s outer borders from products that have no other place to go," Putin said.
"We will have to protect our national producers," he said.
