MOSCOW, January 17 (Xinhua) -- Russia faces challenges as a member of the World TradeOrganization (WTO) and its future depends on how Moscow could cope with the new realities, asenior Russian official said Thursday.

Five months after it became a WTO member, Russia must obey the organization's rules andimplement its obligations to the world trade bloc, Pascal Lamy, the country's WTO directorgeneral, said at the ongoing international Gaidar Forum.

If some countries believe Russia does not implement its obligations or vice versa, they mightlaunch a legal process to level their differences, Lamy said.

Russia officially joined the WTO on August 22. After the accession, Russia will have togradually lower its average tariff ceiling to 7.8 percent from the current 10 percent, with theagricultural tariff down from 13.2 percent to 10.8 percent, and the tariff for industrial productsslashed from 9.5 percent to 7.3 percent.

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin has said Russia might not enjoy immediate benefits from itsaccession to the WTO and could even face serious challenges.

As for the WTO accession process of Russia's partners in the tripartite Customs Union, Lamysaid he hopes Kazakhstan could become a WTO member in 2013, although Belarus' prospectis more remote.

"I would suppose that this year Kazakhstan could join WTO," he said.

The Gaidar Forum, named after Yegor Gaidar, Russia's first post-Soviet prime minister,debuted in 2010 and has become a significant gathering of experts and political leaders inRussia.

January 17, 2013

Source: Xinhua