MOSCOW — The Common Economic Area could exist as a three-way project, without Ukraine, if the latter decides to pull out, said Viktor Spassky, head of the economy ministry's department on economic cooperation with CIS countries. Moscow's position was that the Common Economic Area would have a positive impact on the economic development of member states, he noted.

Ukraine is going to withdraw from the project and to have bilateral relations with members of the Common Economic Area - Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, - said Ukraine's economy minister Sergei Terekhin after talks with economy minister German Gref on August 19. "We are moving to a bilateral format with Russia, setting a special committee to consider all our bilateral problems. Probably, Ukraine will pull out of the Common Economic Area project. "We are moving from multilateral to bilateral cooperation," Terekhin said.

During Russian economy minister German Gref's visit to Kiev, Ukrainian authorities expressed readiness to cooperate with Russia "within the framework of free trade zone, but not more," Spassky said.