Commonwealth of Independent States

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Содружество Независимых Государств (СНГ)
Flag of the Commonwealth of Independent States
Location of the Commonwealth of Independent States
     Member state      Associate member     State announced intent to leave CIS      Participant in some projects
Headquarters Flag of Belarus Minsk, Belarus
Working language Russian
Type Commonwealth
Membership 9 member states
1 associate member
1 participant
Leaders
 -  Executive Secretary Flag of Russia 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.

Contents

CIS countries

Ratification status of basic CIS agreements as of September 2008
Country Creation Agreement
signed[2][3]		 Creation Agreement
ratified[4]		 CIS Charter
ratified[4]		 Comments
Flag of Armenia.svg Armenia 21 December 1991 18 February 1992 16 March 1994
Flag of Azerbaijan.svg Azerbaijan 21 December 1991 24 September 1993 14 December 1993
Flag of Belarus.svg Belarus 8 December 1991 10 December 1991 18 January 1994 Founding member country
Flag of Georgia.svg Georgia — 3 December 1993 19 April 1994 Notice of withdrawal from CIS served on 18 August 2008;[5]
becomes effective on 17 August 2009[6] (CIS Charter,[7] sec. 1, art. 9)
Flag of Kazakhstan.svg Kazakhstan 21 December 1991 23 December 1991 20 April 1994
Flag of Kyrgyzstan.svg Kyrgyzstan 21 December 1991 6 March 1992 12 April 1994
Flag of Moldova.svg Moldova 21 December 1991 8 April 1994 27 June 1994
Flag of Russia.svg Russia 8 December 1991 12 December 1991 20 July 1993 Founding member country
Flag of Tajikistan.svg Tajikistan 21 December 1991 26 June 1993 4 August 1993
Flag of Turkmenistan.svg Turkmenistan 21 December 1991 26 December 1991 Not ratified Associate member as of 26 August 2005[8][9]
Flag of Ukraine.svg Ukraine 8 December 1991 10 December 1991 Not ratified Founding participant country
Flag of Uzbekistan.svg 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.[8][9] Georgia notified (on 18 August 2008) the CIS executive organs of the unanimous decision of its parliament to leave the regional organization,[10][5] 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:

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]
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".[14][15] 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 CIS[17] 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]
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 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. 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 input[19]. Ukraine's strategic target is integration into the European and Euroatlantic structures.
In August 2005, Turkmenistan downgraded its CIS status to an associate member from considerations of consistency with its international neutrality status.[8][9]
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:

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

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:

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.

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.

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:

The Institutional framework of EurAsEC includes:

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

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.

Executive Secretaries of CIS

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

There are also organizations which consist of unrecognized states:

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

See also

References

  1. ↑ Regional organizations in UN peacekeeping activities.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Agreement on the Establishment of the CIS: 3 founding countries, 8 December 1991 (unofficial English translation). Russian text here
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Alma-Ata Declaration: 11 countries accede to the CIS, 21 December 1991 (English translation). Russian text here
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Ratification status of CIS documents as of 15 January 2008 (Russian).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia on Georgia's withdrawal from CIS, 18 August 2008.
  6. ↑ Georgia's CIS membership terminates in August 2009, press conference of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers, Bishkek, 9 October 2008
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 CIS Charter, 22 January 1993 (unofficial English translation). Russian text here
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Decision on Turkmenistan's associate membership, CIS Executive Committee meeting in Kazan, Russia, 26 August 2005 (Russian).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Turkmenistan reduces CIS ties to "Associate Member", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 29 August 2005.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Georgian parliament votes to withdraw from CIS on BBC News, 14 August 2008.
  11. ↑ Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty
  12. ↑ Moldavian President Is Against Withdrawal From CIS
  13. ↑ ISN Security Watch - Georgian defense minister defies CIS
  14. ↑ Georgia opts out of ex-Soviet military cooperation body - Pravda.Ru
  15. ↑ RIA Novosti - World - Georgia's quitting CIS council will not affect security - Russian minister
  16. ↑ International Relations and Security Network, "Georgia considers withdrawing from CIS", 3 May 2006.
  17. ↑ Georgia intends to leave the CIS on CNN.com, 12 August 2008.
  18. ↑ UNIAN: "Ukraine is not member of CIS – Presidential Secretariat"
  19. ↑ Ohryzko Advocates Reduction Of Ukraine’s Contributions To CIS Budget, Ukrainian News Agency (November 27, 2008)
  20. ↑ Russia questions further existence of the CIS post-soviet organization InfoNIAC
  21. ↑ http://www.iacis.ru/short.en.html
  22. ↑ McDermott, Roger (2005-02-17). "Security in Central Asia Moves Closer to Moscow's Orbit", The Jamestown Foundation. Retrieved on October 2006. 
  23. ↑ http://www.eurasianhome.org
  24. ↑ (Russian) Союз независимых государств Geopolitica.ru
  25. ↑ http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2003/370301.shtml

External links

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Armenia · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Kazakhstan · Kyrgyzstan · Russia · Tajikistan · Uzbekistan · Ukraine · Moldova
Associate member: Turkmenistan · Downgraded membership: Georgia
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Central Asian regional organizations
Central Asia plus Japan · Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program · Collective Security Treaty Organization · Commonwealth of Independent States · Economic Cooperation Organization · Eurasian Economic Community · Shanghai Cooperation Organisation