Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Содружество Независимых Государств (СНГ)
Member state      Associate member     State announced intent to leave CIS      Participant in some projects
Headquarters		Minsk, Belarus
Working language		Russian
Type		Commonwealth
Membership		9 member states 1 associate member 1 participant
Leaders
-	Executive Secretary	Sergei Lebedev
Establishment		21 December 1991
Population
-	2008 estimate	277,983,490
Website cis.minsk.by

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (Russian: Содружество Независимых Государств (СНГ), transliterated Sodruzhestvo Nezavisimykh Gosudarstv (SNG)) is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics.

The CIS is not a superstate, and it is comparable to a loose confederation similar to the original European Community rather than today’s European Union. Although the CIS has few supranational powers, it is more than a purely symbolic organization, possessing coordinating powers in the realm of trade, finance, lawmaking, and security. It has also promoted cooperation on democratization and cross-border crime prevention. As a regional organization, CIS participates in UN peacekeeping forces.¹

There is disagreement among CIS countries about whether to deepen their own relationship as a separate bloc, or whether to seek greater ties with Western Europe and the United States, particularly in the areas of economics and defense. Some of the members of the CIS have established the Eurasian Economic Community with the aim of creating a full-fledged free trade zone or economic union between the participating states. However, other member states have shown greater interest in seeking to join the European Union. Similarly, some member states have established the Collective Security Treaty Organization to co-operate on defense and security issues, while other members are seeking full membership of NATO. This disagreement has hindered the development of the CIS.

The CIS is headquartered in Minsk, Belarus. The chairman of the CIS is known as the Executive Secretary. All of the CIS's executive secretaries have been from Belarus or Russia. Sergei Lebedev is the current executive secretary, and has been since October 2007.

CIS countries

Ratification status of basic CIS agreements as of September 2008

Country	Creation Agreement signed23	Creation Agreement ratified4	CIS Charter ratified4	Comments
Armenia	21 December 1991	18 February 1992	16 March 1994
Azerbaijan	21 December 1991	24 September 1993	14 December 1993
Belarus	8 December 1991	10 December 1991	18 January 1994	Founding member country
Georgia	—	3 December 1993	19 April 1994	Notice of withdrawal from CIS served on 18 August 2008;5 becomes effective on 17 August 20096 (CIS Charter,7 sec. 1, art. 9)
Kazakhstan	21 December 1991	23 December 1991	20 April 1994
Kyrgyzstan	21 December 1991	6 March 1992	12 April 1994
Moldova	21 December 1991	8 April 1994	27 June 1994
Russia	8 December 1991	12 December 1991	20 July 1993	Founding member country
Tajikistan	21 December 1991	26 June 1993	4 August 1993
Turkmenistan	21 December 1991	26 December 1991	Not ratified	Associate member as of 26 August 200589
Ukraine	8 December 1991	10 December 1991	Not ratified	Founding participant country
Uzbekistan	21 December 1991	1 April 1992	9 February 1994

Thus, as of September 2008, the 12 countries that form the CIS differ in their membership status: 9 countries have ratified the CIS charter and are full CIS members, one country (Turkmenistan) is an associate member, one country (Georgia) has declared its decision to leave the CIS, and one country (Ukraine) is a founding and participating country, but legally not a member country.

History

Foundation

The organization was founded on 8 December 1991 by Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, when the leaders of the three countries met in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Natural Reserve, about 50 km (30 miles) north of Brest in Belarus and signed a Creation Agreement (Russian: Соглашение, Soglasheniye) on the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the creation of CIS as a successor entity to the USSR.² At the same time they announced that the new alliance would be open to all republics of the former Soviet Union, as well as other nations sharing the same goals. The CIS charter stated that all the members were sovereign and independent nations and thereby effectively abolished the Soviet Union.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev described this as an "illegal and dangerous" constitutional coup, but it soon became clear that the development could not be stopped. On 21 December 1991, the leaders of eight additional former Soviet Republics – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – joined the CIS, thus bringing the number of participating countries to 11.³ Georgia joined two years later, in December 1993.⁴ As of that time, CIS included 12 of the 15 former Soviet Republics. The three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – had decided not to join, seeking strategic affiliation with the European Union.

The Creation Agreement remained the main constituent document of the CIS until January 1993, when the CIS Charter (Russian: Устав, Ustav) was adopted.⁷ The charter formalized the concept of membership: a member country is defined as a country that ratifies the CIS Charter (sec. 2, art. 7). Ukraine, one of the three founding countries that signed and ratified the Creation Agreement in December 1991, has never ratified the CIS Charter and it is thus legally not a member country to this day.⁴ Turkmenistan changed its CIS standing to associate member as of 26 August 2005 in order to be consistent with its UN-recognized international neutrality status.⁸⁹ Georgia notified (on 18 August 2008) the CIS executive organs of the unanimous decision of its parliament to leave the regional organization,¹⁰⁵ and according to the CIS Charter (sec. 1, art. 9) this decision will come into force 12 months after the notification date.

During the 1992 Olympic Games (in Albertville and Barcelona), athletes from the CIS member states competed as the Unified Team for the last time. In other sports events in that year, such as the European Championships in football, athletes took part as representatives of the CIS. Since then, the member states have competed under their national banners.

Crisis

Between years of 2003 and 2005, three CIS member states experienced a change of government in a series of "colour revolutions": Eduard Shevardnadze was overthrown in Georgia, Viktor Yushchenko was elected in Ukraine, and, lastly, Askar Akayev was toppled in Kyrgyzstan. The new government in Ukraine has taken an especially clear pro-Western stance, in contrast to their predecessors' close relationship with the Kremlin. The new government of Georgia has likewise taken a pro-Western and anti-Kremlin stance. Moldova also seems to be quietly drifting toward the West, away from the CIS.

In that time frame a number of statements have been made by member state officials, casting doubt on the potential and continued worth of the CIS:

• Moldova

On 19 September 2003, Vladimir Voronin, the president of Moldova, expressed his disappointment at the Common Economic Space set up between Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus as part of the Eurasian Economic Community , and claimed this decision would lead to a "depreciation of CIS stock" and that it showed that "possible modernization of the CIS has been abandoned for good" and "the lack of perspective of the CIS has become evident".¹¹ However he has also more recently argued that it would be a great mistake for Moldova to leave the "huge markets" of the CIS and that Moldova can gain profit by remaining part of the CIS.¹²

• Georgia

In November 2004, the Defense Minister of Georgia, Giorgi Baramidze, told reporters that he would not be attending the CIS Council of Defense Ministers, and that the CIS is "yesterday's history", while Georgia's future was in cooperation with NATO defence ministers.¹³ In February 2006, Georgia officially withdrew from the Council of Defense Ministers, with the statement that "Georgia has taken a course to join NATO and it cannot be part of two military structures simultaneously".¹⁴¹⁵ As tensions heightened with Russia due to the latter's ban on several Georgian wine and water brands, the Government of Georgia began to consider withdrawing from the CIS, its membership in which was largely unpopular within Georgia. President Mikheil Saakashvili said on 2 May 2006 that the government would review whether the country was benefiting from being a CIS member.¹⁶ Following the South Ossetian war in 2008, President Saakashvili announced during a public speech in the capital city Tbilisi that Georgia would leave the CIS¹⁷ and the Georgian Parliament voted unanimously (on 14 August 2008) to withdraw from the regional organization.¹⁰ On 18 August 2008 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia sent a note to the CIS Executive Committee notifying it of the aforesaid resolutions of the Parliament of Georgia and Georgia’s withdrawal from CIS.⁵

• Belarus

One of the closest allies of Russia, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, said during a summit with Vladimir Putin that "The CIS is undergoing the most critical phase of its history" and is at risk of being dissolved or losing all its significance to the member states.

• Ukraine

Ukraine has never ratified the CIS treaty and, therefore, is not a member of the organization.¹⁸ On 9 April 2005, Minister of Economics of Ukraine said at a news conference "there is no hope for CIS development" and that Ukrainian government is considering halting its financial contributions to CIS bodies.^{citation needed} Ukraine had historically become one of the CIS founding countries. At the same time Ukraine is the participant and not the member of CIS as it did not sign the Rules (Statute) of CIS. Ukraine is against turning of CIS into the "superstate" entity and against delegating to such entity of any authority to override the national governments decisions. Ukraine is against delegating to CIS of the status of the international law subject and does not recognize the CIS right to represent its interests in the international arena or in the international organizations. Ukraine does not support any attempts to revive in the post-soviet territory any new amalgamations of federative or confederative character, is against creation on the CIS basis of political, military or economic union around mutual center. Ukraine departs from the fact that each of the countries - participants of CIS conducts its foreign policy independently and determines the scope of its activities within CIS. Ukraine does not take part in the CIS military-political structures. Ukraine is currently gradually further "wrapping up" the scope of its participation in the CIS activities and possible cutting back it's financial input¹⁹. Ukraine's strategic target is integration into the European and Euroatlantic structures.

• Turkmenistan

In August 2005, Turkmenistan downgraded its CIS status to an associate member from considerations of consistency with its international neutrality status.⁸⁹

• Russia

In March 2007, Igor Ivanov, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, expressed his doubts concerning the usefulness of CIS, and emphasizing that the EurAsEC became a more competent organization to unify the biggest countries of the CIS.²⁰

Governing bodies

Meeting of CIS leaders in Bishkek in 2008

The affairs of CIS member states are governed by the following statutory bodies:

• Executive Committee - Website
• Council of the Heads of States
• Council of the Heads of Governments
• Council of Foreign Ministers
• Council of Defense Ministers
• Council of the Interior Ministers

Note. In the CIS countries (as in many European nations) the Interior Minister is the head of a national law enforcement agency.

• Council of the Member-State Permanent Representatives
• Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (IPA)

Established in March 1992 as a consultative institution, the first participants were Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Between 1993 and 1996, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova also joined. Ukraine joined in 1999.

IPA sessions are held twice a year in Saint Petersburg, and are composed of parliamentary delegations of the member states. The IPA has nine permanent commissions: on legal issues; on economy and finance; on social policy and human rights; on ecology and natural resources; on defense and security issues; on culture, science, education and information issues; on foreign policy affairs; on state-building and local government; on control budget.²¹

• Economic Council
• Economic Court - Website

Military cooperation

• Staff for Coordinating Military Cooperation

Established as the CIS Joint Armed Forces High Command in March 1992 and then reorganized as the Coordinating Staff in August 1993. Reduced quickly to a very weak body as national authorities asserted their control over their own armed forces. May now have been wound up after a CIS conference in Kazan in August 2005.²²

The following bodies also govern defense and security issues:

• Council of the Heads of Security and Special Services
• Joint Consultative Commission on Disarmament
• Anti-Terrorism Center
• Council of Border Troops Commanders

Collective Security Treaty Organization

Main article: Collective Security Treaty Organization

On October 7, 2002, the Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, signed a charter in Chişinău, founding the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) (Russian: Организация Договора о Коллективной Безопасности (ОДКБ~ODKB)) or simply Ташкентский договор (The Tashkent Treaty). Nikolai Bordyuzha was appointed secretary general of the new organization. On 23 June 2006, Uzbekistan became a full participant of the CSTO and its parliament formally ratified membership on 28 March 2008.²³ The CSTO is an observer organization at the United Nations General Assembly.The charter reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force. Signatories would not be able to join other military alliances or other groups of states, while aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all.

The CSTO employs a "rotating presidency" system in which the country leading the CSTO alternates every year. Currently Armenia has the CSTO presidency.

The CSTO grew out of the 1992 CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST) which was signed on 15 May 1992, by Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in the city of Tashkent.

Non CSTO members

Of the CIS members not in the CSTO, both Ukraine and Georgia are seeking membership of NATO, while Moldova, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are militarily neutral.

Economic cooperation

In addition to the Economic Council, the following agencies are involved in economic issues.

• Interstate Statistical Committee - Website
• Interstate Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification - Website

Also known as the Euro Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (EASC). Recognized as a regional standards organization by ISO Council Resolution 40/1995.

• Interstate Council for Emergencies Caused by Natural Phenomena and Industrial Activities
• Interstate Ecological Council
• Interstate Council for Hydrometeorology
• Interstate Council for Geodesy, Cartography, Cadaster and Remote Earth Probing
• Interstate Council for Coordination of Scientific Information
• Inter-Governmental Council for Cooperation in the Construction Industry
• Electric Power Council - Website
• Council for Cooperation in Health Care
• Interstate Council for Anti-Trust Policies
• Interstate Council for Industrial Safety - Website
• Council of the Heads of Statistical Services

Mongolia participates as an observer in а number of economic activities of the CIS.²⁴

Eurasian Economic Community

Main article: Eurasian Economic Community

The Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC or EAEC or EEC) was put into motion on 10 October 2000 when Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed the treaty. EurAsEC was formally created when the treaty was finally ratified by all five member states in May 2001. Uzbekistan became a member in January 2006[1] when the Central Asian Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Community merged. Moldova and Armenia have observer status.

The aims of EurAsEC include:

• Full-scale customs union and common market.
• Harmonization of customs tariffs.
• Development of common guidelines on border security.
• Establishment of the general rules of trade in goods and in services and of their access to the domestic markets.
• The introduction of the standardized currency exchange regulation and of currency control.
• Development and the implementation of the joint programs of social and economic development.
• Creation of equal conditions for production and entrepreneurial activity.
• The formation of the common market for transport services and united transport system.
• The formation of general energy market.
• Equal rights for citizens of participating states to obtain medical aid.
• Equal rights for citizens of participating states to enter into higher education.
• Rapprochement and the harmonization of national legislation.

The Institutional framework of EurAsEC includes:

• Intergovernmental Council
• Secretariat
• Commission of the Permanent Representatives
• Interstate parliamentary Assembly
• Law Court of the Association
• Integration Committee

Common Economic Space

Main article: Common Economic Space (CIS)

After discussion about the creation of a "Common Economic Space" between the countries of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, agreement in principle about the creation of this space was announced after a meeting in Moscow suburb on 23 February 2003. The Common Economic Space would involve a supranational commission on trade and tariffs that would be based in Kiev, would initially be headed by a representative of Kazakhstan, and would not be subordinate to the governments of the four nations. The ultimate goal would be a regional organization that would be open for other countries to join as well, and could eventually lead even to a single currency.²⁵

However, since the election of Viktor Yushchenko in the Ukrainian presidential election of 2004 Ukraine has shown renewed interest in membership of the European Union, and such membership would be incompatible with the envisioned common economic space. Nevertheless, with the revival of the Eurasian Economic Community in 2005 there is a possibility for the "common economic space" agenda to be implemented in its framework of a Union of Russia and Belarus with or without the participation of Ukraine. This was confirmed in August 2006 [2] and in October 2007 it was announced that a customs union would be formed by Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan by 2011 with other members being able to join later. [3]

Non EurAsEC members

Of the CIS members that are not in EurAsEc, Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia are all actively seeking membership of the European Union, while both Armenia and Azerbaijan have expressed interest in seeking EU membership at some stage in the future.

Chartered organizations

• Interstate Bank - Website
• MIR Interstate Television and Radio Broadcasting Company
• Council of the Heads of the Chambers of Commerce
• International Association of Exchanges - Website
• Leasing Confederation - Website
• International Consumer Cooperatives Council
• International Union for Agricultural Production
• International Academy of Wine Growing and Wine Making

Election observation missions

Main article: CIS election observation missions

Since 2002, the CIS has been sending observers to elections in member countries of the CIS. Several of these observation missions have been extremely controversial, as their findings have been that the elections are "free and fair" only when the pro-Kremlin or ruling-party wins, and therefore has often been in contradiction with the findings of other international organizations from Western liberal-democracies - such as the OSCE, the Council of Europe, or the European Union - which normally label those same elections as having many irregularities.

After the CIS observer mission disputed the final (repeat) round of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which followed the Orange Revolution and brought into power the former opposition, Ukraine suspended its membership in the CIS observer missions.

Russian language

Russia has been urging for the Russian language to receive official status in all of the CIS member states. So far Russian is an official language in four of these states: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Russian is also considered an official language in the region of Transnistria, as well as the semi-autonomous region of Gagauzia in Moldova.

Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-supported presidential candidate in the controversial Ukrainian presidential election, 2004, declared his intention to make Russian an official second language of Ukraine. However, Viktor Yushchenko, the winner, did not do so as he was more closely aligned with the Ukrainian-speaking population.^{citation needed}

Executive Secretaries of CIS

Members
Name	Country	Term
Ivan Korotchenya	Belarus	26 December 1991 - 29 April 1998
Boris Berezovsky	Russia	29 April 1998 - 4 March 1999
Ivan Korotchenya (acting)	Belarus	4 March - 2 April 1999
Yury Yarov	Russia	2 April 1999 - 14 June 2004
Vladimir Rushailo	Russia	14 June 2004 - 5 October 2007
Sergei Lebedev	Russia	since 5 October 2007

Alternative organizations

As the CIS doesn't meet all members' expectations, several alternative organizations involving the former Soviet republics have been created:

• Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
• Common Economic Space (CES) or Single Economic Space (SES)
• Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC or EAEC or EEC)
• GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development
• Organization of Central Asian Cooperation (OCAC)
• Union State of Russia and Belarus

There are also organizations which consist of unrecognized states:

• Commonwealth of Unrecognized States (CUS or CIS-2)
• Community for Democracy and Human Rights or Commonwealth for Democracy and Rights of Nations

In several other organizations the former Soviet republics constitute a large part of members:

• Baku Initiative
• Black Sea Forum for Partnership and Dialogue
• Black Sea Naval Co-operation Task Group (BLACKSEAFOR)
• Community of Democratic Choice (CDC)
• Council of the Baltic Sea States
• Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
• Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

See also

• Common Economic Space as part of the European Union–Russia Common Spaces
• Commonwealth of Independent States Cup
• OSCE countries statistics
• Unified Team, sometimes mistakenly credited as the CIS team

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Commonwealth of Independent States

• CIS Executive Committee
• Charter of the CIS
• PINR - C.I.S. Struggles for Cohesion
• RZB Outlook For Commonwealth Of Independent States

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