Vladimir Putin commented on the results of the five-sided meeting with the representatives of the European Union, the Customs Union and the president of Ukraine. QUESTION: Mr Putin, what about the outcome of the five-party meeting with EU representatives, with your Customs Union colleagues and with Mr Poroshenko? VLADIMIR PUTIN: Overall, I give it a positive assessment. I think this meeting in that format was useful. Granted, I do not know how it will all turn out. But in any case, we had another chance to express our concerns. We agreed that we will intensify efforts in the trilateral working group of Russia, Ukraine and EU representatives and will try to draft proposals by September 12, if we can, regarding the concerns expressed by Russia and the Customs Union that I talked about. We once again pointed out to our partners – both European and Ukrainian partners – that implementation of the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU carries significant risks for the Russian economy. We have shown this in the text of the agreement, directly pointing to specific articles in that agreement. Let me remind you that this concerns nullifying Ukraine’s customs tariffs, technical regulations, and phytosanitary standards. The standards in Russia and Europe currently do not correspond. But, as you recall, the most classic example is the introduction of EU technical regulations in Ukraine. In that case, we would not be able to supply our goods to Ukraine at all. We have different technical standards. And according to the European Union’s standards, we will not be able to supply our machine-building products there, or any industrial goods. If that happens, we cannot accept Ukrainian agricultural production goods in our territory, because we have different approaches to phytosanitary standards. We feel that many problems would occur. I must say that our colleagues do not agree with all my arguments, but in any case, we were heard and we agreed that we will intensify our exchange of opinions and try to find at least some resolutions. But I once again said that in order to avoid any surprises, we are constantly discussing this, including at the meeting in Deauville, as you know, where I also talked about this. If we do not achieve any agreements and our concerns are not taken into account, then we will be forced to take measures to protect our economy. And we explained what those measures would be. So our partners must weigh everything and make corresponding decisions. Each nation in this process has the right take any steps within the framework of its competence. All of us are sovereign states and we will respect any choice by our European and Ukrainian partners. We hope that they will treat our measures to protect our economy with the same respect.