ROSTOV-ON-DON, Oct. 28 – Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara has said he is confident that his country's association with the EU will have a positive effect on everybody, including Russia.

"We suggested to our Russian colleagues that we set up an expert group between Russia, Ukraine and the EU in order to analyze in a spirit of openness the possible consequences of association for Ukraine," he said at a meeting of the subcommittee for international cooperation of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission in Rostov-on-Don on Monday.