The Return of the Siloviki
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently announced that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan have abandoned their separate talks to join the WTO. This amounts to a major reversal of Russian policy, and one that shows who is really in charge in Russia - Putin and his authoritarian, isolationist cronies from the security apparatus, not President Dmitry Medvedev.
https://prosyn.org/hV3A4mm
STOCKHOLM – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently announced that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan have abandoned their separate talks to join the World Trade Organization. Instead, they would seek to enter the world trade body as a single customs union. In effect, this means that Russia seems to be casting aside its accession to the WTO – a major reversal of Russian strategy.