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This paper asks the question of the impact of institutions on trade and attempts to estimate the potential for trade increase between CIS, Central Eastern European countries and EU. This latter is computed using the gravity equation and the procedure introduced by Hausman and Taylor (1981). It is shown that CIS trade is still characterised by a very large trade destruction effect, which implies that trade with EU countries could increase in the long run in proportion to this trade destruction effect. Furthermore institutions matter, and the convergence of institutional variables towards the EU ones-under the current process of EU enlargement and application of Russia to join the WTO- can be expected to deepen the level of the European trade integration