Seventeen years have passed and Russia is still waiting for its accession to World Trade Organization (WTO). Hence, the feeling of frustration was evident for the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev even as, in October 2010, the US President Barack Obama extended his strong support for expediting Russia's accession to WTO. The inordinate delay in Russia's accession has been due to various objective and subjective factors. In the 1990s, after the Soviet disintegration, under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, there were many domestic constraints as Russia was passing through tremendous political and economic problems of transition. Since 2000, during the first term of President Vladimir Putin, Russia did make a serious beginning for complying with various formalities for accession. But the process of accession was hindered partly due to certain economic and political policies undertaken by Putin during his second term covering 2004 to mid-2008. Russia faced objections for its admission to WTO by some of the former Soviet Republics such as Georgia, Estonia and Moldova. Moreover, certain trade restrictive policies in Russia, including enhanced export duties and import restrictions, antagonized European Union (EU) and the US which had been otherwise supportive to Russia's accession. Russia-US relations, known for their historic complexities, also contributed for the delay. This was evident from the fact that even at the end of 2006, Russia was not able to complete its bilateral protocol with 5 out of 153 countries including the US. Since 2009, under the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia has taken consistent policy measures and made significant progress in completing the formalities for accession. To implement policy measures, steps have been taken by the concerned ministries of the government of Russia with the concerned organizations. Russia has conceded to take policy measures to overcome objections on the issues relating to agricultural subsidy, Customs Union (CU) and hopes to resolve the remaining constraints within a few months with support from Russia's major partners including Germany and the US. Thus, there are high hopes that Russia has entered the final act for accession to WTO.

In the first week of October 2010, there was hope that after about 17 years, Russia seemed to have entered the final act of accession to World Trade Organization (WTO). The reason for this expectation was based on the report of the Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on October 1, 2010 which said that the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama confirmed in a telephone conversation that bilateral talks on Russia's admission to the WTO were complete. While seeking cooperation and support from the US, Medvedev was expressing his anguish and frustration for delay in Russia's accession to WTO. According to Russian reports, by the end of 2010 Medvedev is confident that the process of joining WTO would be complete. An effort has been made in this paper to examine the causes that have contributed to this delay even as the question remains whether this will be the final act.

In fact, since 1993 after the Soviet break-up, Russia has been interested in joining this international trade organization. It is the only major economy which is yet to become a member of this global trade body. It generally takes 5-7 years for a country to complete the procedures of accession and comply with the conditions such as harmonization of legal system and practice of regulating trade with the Articles of Uruguay Round. These are the requirements which were, objectively speaking, not easy to comply for Russia, which was a former communist country with different political and economic systems. This may partly explain why Russia has taken such a long period to join the WTO which has a membership of 153 countries. However, this period can be roughly divided into four phases: the first phase covering eight years of presidency under Boris Yeltsin up to 1999; second phase covering the first term of Vladimir Putin's presidency from 2000 to 2004; third phase covering the second term of Putin's presidency from 2004 to mid-2008; and the fourth phase covering Medvedev's presidency since mid-2008.

The first phase covered a historic period when the former Soviet Union was broken up into 15 sovereign and independent states. Russia not only faced the aftermath of political disintegration, but also suffered economic chaos and crisis since President Boris Yeltsin undertook reform measures to bring about economic transition in one go through Shock Therapy. Hence, there were some objective factors which could have caused the delay on the part of Russia itself in joining WTO even as many Western countries were supportive of Russia's membership. For instance, unprecedented economic crisis in the first decade of independence culminating into the banking crisis in 1998, coupled with frequent sacking of economic ministers and even prime ministers by the whimsical Russian President Boris Yeltsin could also have hampered Russia's compliance with formalities for membership of WTO.

International Relations Journal, Russia Accession, World Trade Organization, Domestic Constraints, Economic Systems, International Trade Organization, Economic Crisis, European Union, Time-Consuming Process, International Market, Economic Development, Economic Reforms, Global Trading Organization, Intellectual Property Rights Protection.