YEREVAN. – Ukraine's withdrawal from CIS will be fraught with grave consequences for country's economy, director of Ukrainian “Expert Council” Iskander Khisamov said.

He is convinced that negative economic consequences will impact in particular south-eastern regions closely connected with Russia.

“There has been a very serious violation of the long-term balance of power. Party of Regions got 1.5 million votes from Crimea. Now this balance was disrupted. Moreover, anti-Russian sentiments  have increased dramatically amid Crimea developments,” he said during a round-table discussion titled “CIS Future: With Ukraine or without?”.

Khisamov noted that the chances of political forces representing the east and pro-Russian direction are close to zero.

“It turns out that Russia risks to get very large Latvia with major part of rather poor politically represented population,” he said.

In connection with the further development of the economic situation in the country, Ukrainian expert said there may be bankruptcy and economic riots.

“But today we get a country with which the CIS is unlikely to cooperate”.