MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Russian business may face around $3.5 bln worth of loss from Ukraine-EU free trade zone in the short-term, according to First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexey Likhachev who presented a draft plan for a presidential law on suspension of free trade zone agreement with Ukraine in the State Duma (lower house of parliament) on Tuesday.

"All in all the analysis of the loss to be faced by the Russian economy, calculated under the Global trade analysis project international acknowledged model shows that in the short term tariff liberalization alone will cause more than $3.5 bln loss for Russian entrepreneurs," he said, adding that the issue is about the loss the Russian business community could have born in case Russia did not respond to the creation of a free trade zone between Ukraine and the EU. "In this case by suspending preferential regime and by applying tough standards of customs administration, phytosanitary regulations I think we're notably reducing it (the loss - TASS) multi-fold," Lukhachev said.