MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 4 /from RIA Novosti's Elena Fedorova/ - Moscow ought to drastically raise domestic fuel prices, says the World Trade Organisation as
negotiations are underway to grant Russia its membership.
"An absurdity," Andrei Illarionov, presidential economic adviser, snapped at
the WTO proviso as he was speaking today at the Nikitsky Club, a Moscow-based academic and entrepreneurial debating society.
Russia has fully liberalised its petroleum and fuel prices, so the government has no chance to change them. As to electricity tariffs, they are bloated but have a chance to get down after the industry undergoes a reform.
On the whole, the expert approves the present stance, on which Russia intends not to send domestic fuel and energy prices up but spread liberalisation to natural monopolies.