KIEV, May 18 ??“ Ukraine??™s huge trade turnover with Russia and other former Soviet Union states requires them to be part of an international organization, like the Commonwealth of Independent States, President Viktor Yushchenko said Thursday.

Ukraine recorded more than $20 billion in bilateral trade with Russia last year, a figure that Yushchenko said may justify existence of the CIS.

???When we talk about interests of such magnitude, of course we have to say that this requires a certain platform for political, economic, trade and other dialogs,??? Yushchenko told Interfax-Ukraine. ???That??™s why we are talking about the CIS.???

The comment is Yushchenko??™s first positive assessment of the CIS??™s role since May 7 when Ukraine has conducted consultations with Georgia on whether to quit the alliance due to its poor efficiency.

Yushchenko made focus on trade a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin had indicated that Moscow was ready to lift remaining trade restrictions to encourage other countries to stay within the CIS.

Russia may have been apparently seeking to change its policy after harsh trade sanctions against Ukraine and Georgia had forced them to start talks over quitting the alliance.

Russia banned $800 million worth imports of meat and dairy products from Ukraine and completely prohibited imports of Georgian wine and mineral water, the country??™s main exports, apparently trying to punish them for their pro-Western foreign policy.

The sanctions pushed Kiev and Tbilisi to start consultations on whether to quit the CIS, a move that would damage growing geopolitical ambitions of Russia, analysts said.

Yushchenko made comments two days after speaking with Putin by telephone as parties have been preparing the Russian president??™s visit to Kiev due later this year.

Yushchenko said Putin was likely to visit Ukraine after the government is formed following the March 26 election.

???Currently the coalition and the government are being formed??¦ perhaps within the next several weeks we??™ll have the national government and so it will be possible to prepare a complete program of the visit,??? Yushchenko said.

One of the top issues to be discussed during the Putin visit will be cooperation in the energy sector, apparently including natural gas prices and supply volumes. The two governments have not yet signed a bilateral gas supply agreement following a major gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia in January.

???The energy issue, if not the No. 1, will be an important point in the talks,??? Yushchenko said. (jp/ez)