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MOSCOW — After high-level meetings in Washington, Russian officials said Tuesday that they were on the brink of a deal that would allow Russia to become a member of the World Trade Organization after 18 years of halting negotiations, though hostility between Georgia and Russia remains a crucial sticking point. Russia’s accession to the organization has been a key goal of the “reset” between Russia and the United States, a reconciliation whose future is uncertain amid political change in both countries. Russia’s first deputy prime minister, Igor I. Shuvalov, said Tuesday that United States officials were vigorously advocating for Russia and that they were near a breakthrough. “We have Americans working 24 hours a day on our application in order to persuade other W.T.O. members that Russia should get membership before the end of the year,” Mr. Shuvalov said at a United States-Russia trade event in Chicago. “At the beginning of this year, very few people believed it was possible. Now ...