The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of states in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 246,200,194. The CIS encourages cooperation in economic, political, and military affairs and has certain powers related to the coordination of trade, finance, lawmaking, and security, including the prevention of cross-border crime.
As the USSR disintegrated, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine signed the Belovezha Accords on 8 December 1991, declaring that the Union had effectively ceased to exist and proclaiming the CIS in its place. On 21 December, these three former Soviet republics and eight additional ones signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which established the founding declarations and principles of the CIS. Georgia joined the CIS in 1993 but withdrew its membership in 2008 following a war with Russia. Ukraine formally ended its participation in CIS statutory bodies in 2018, although it had stopped participating in the organisation following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. Following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moldova started to withdraw from the CIS institutional framework, culminating in its denunciation of the CIS treaty, protocol, and charter on 8 April 2026.
Eight of the nine CIS member states participate in the CIS Free Trade Area. Three organisations originated from the CIS, namely the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union (alongside subdivisions, the Eurasian Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Space); and the Union State. While the first and the second are military and economic alliances, the third aims to reach a supranational union of Russia and Belarus with a common government and currency.
History and structure
Background
In March 1991, amidst Perestroika and a rising political crisis in the country, Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the Soviet Union, proposed a federation by holding a referendum to preserve the Union as a union of sovereign republics. The new treaty signing never happened as the Communist Party hardliners staged a coup attempt in Moscow in August that year.
Founding
After the collapse of the August coup, many republics of the USSR declared their independence, fearing another coup. A week after the Ukrainian independence referendum was held, which kept the chances of the Soviet Union staying together low, the Commonwealth of Independent States was founded in its place on 8 December 1991 by the Byelorussian SSR, the Russian SFSR, and the Ukrainian SSR, when the leaders of the three republics met at the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Natural Reserve, about north of Brest in Belarus, and signed the "Agreement Establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States", known as the Belovezha Accords.
The CIS announced that the new organisation would be open to all republics of the former Soviet Union and to 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. On 21 December 1991, the leaders of eight additional former Soviet Republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) signed the Alma-Ata Protocol which can either be interpreted as expanding the CIS to these states or the proper foundation or foundation date of the CIS, thus bringing the number of participating countries to 11.Alma-Ata Declaration : 11 countries accede to the CIS, 21 December 1991 (English translation). Russian text here Georgia joined two years later, in December 1993.Ratification status of CIS documents as of 15 January 2008 (Russian) At this point, 12 of the 15 former Soviet Republics participated in the CIS, the three non-participants being the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The CIS and the Soviet Union also legally co-existed briefly with each other until 26 December 1991, when the Soviet of the Republics formally dissolved the Soviet Union. This was followed by Ivan Korotchenya becoming Executive Secretary of the CIS on the same day.: 3 founding countries, 8 December 1991 (unofficial English translation). Russian text here
After the end of the dissolution process of the Soviet Union, Russia and the Central Asian republics were weakened economically and faced declines in GDP. Post-Soviet states underwent economic reforms and privatisation. The process of Eurasian integration began immediately after the breakup of the Soviet Union to salvage economic ties with post-Soviet republics.
CIS Charter
On 22 January 1993, the Charter (Statutes) of the CIS was signed, setting up the different institutions of the CIS, their functions, and the rules and statutes of the CIS. The Charter also defined that all countries that have ratified the Agreement on the Establishment of the CIS and its relevant (Alma-Ata) Protocol would be considered to be founding states of the CIS, with only those countries ratifying the Charter being considered to be member states of the CIS (art. 7). Other states can participate as associate members or observers if accepted as such by a decision of the Council of Heads of State to the CIS (art. 8).
All the founding states, apart from Ukraine and Turkmenistan, ratified the Charter of the CIS and became member states of it. Nevertheless, Ukraine and Turkmenistan kept participating in the CIS, without being member states of it. Turkmenistan became an associate member of the CIS in August 2005. Georgia left the CIS altogether in 2009 and Ukraine stopped participating in 2018.
General secretary
The work of CIS is coordinated by the general secretary. +General secretariesNameTerm Ivan Korotchenya14 May 1993 – 29 April 1998 Boris Berezovsky29 April 1998 – 4 March 1999 Ivan Korotchenya4 March 1999 – 2 April 1999 Yury Yarov2 April 1999 – 14 July 2004 Vladimir Rushailo14 July 2004 – 5 October 2007 Sergei Lebedev5 October 2007 – present
Interparliamentary Assembly The CIS Interparliamentary Assembly was established on 27 March 1992 in Kazakhstan. On 26 May 1995, the CIS leaders signed the Convention on the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States eventually ratified by nine parliaments; the only CIS member not signing was Georgia. Under the terms of the convention, the InterParliamentary Assembly (IPA) was invested with international legitimacy.
It is housed in the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg and acts as the consultative parliamentary wing of the CIS, created to discuss problems of parliamentary cooperation, review draft documents of common interest, and pass model laws to the national legislatures in the CIS (as well as recommendations) for their use in the preparation of new laws and amendments to existing legislation. More than 130 documents have been adopted that ensure the convergence of laws in the CIS at the level of national legislation. The Assembly is actively involved in the development of integration processes in the CIS and also sends observers to the national elections. The Assembly held its 32nd Plenary meeting in Saint Petersburg on 14 May 2009.
Further developments Between 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 Askar Akayev was toppled in Kyrgyzstan.
In February 2006, Georgia 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", but it remained a full member of the CIS until August 2009, one year after officially withdrawing in the immediate aftermath of the Russo-Georgian War.
In March 2007, Igor Ivanov, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, expressed his doubts concerning the usefulness of the CIS, emphasising that the Eurasian Economic Community was becoming a more competent organisation to unify the largest countries of the CIS.Russia questions further existence of the CIS post-soviet organisation InfoNIAC Following the withdrawal of Georgia, the presidents of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan skipped the October 2009 meeting of the CIS, each having their own issues and disagreements with the Russian Federation.
In May 2009, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine joined the Eastern Partnership (EaP), a project that was initiated by the European Union (EU). The EaP framework governs the EU's relationship with the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Content is copied from this source, which is (c) European Union, 1995–2018. Reuse is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged.
Membership
There are nine full member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The Creation Agreement remained the main constituent document of the CIS until January 1993, when the CIS Charter () was adopted.CIS Charter, 22 January 1993 (unofficial English translation). Russian text here The charter formalised the concept of membership: a member country is defined as a country that ratifies the CIS Charter (sec. 2, art. 7). Additional members can join with the consent of all current members. Parties that ratified the Creation Agreement before the adoption of the Charter are considered to be "Founding states", but not members.
Member states Country Signed Charter ratified Notes Founding state. Signatory of the Alma-Ata Protocol Signatory of the Alma-Ata Protocol. Founding state. Signatory of both the Belovezha Accords and the Alma-Ata Protocol. Founding state. Signatory of the Alma-Ata Protocol. Founding state. Signatory of the Alma-Ata Protocol. Signatory of the Alma-Ata Protocol, in process of withdrawing. Active participation in CIS meetings ceased in November 2022, the CIS treaty, its protocol and charter were denounced in April 2026 and withdrawal from the organization will be effective on 8 April 2027. Founding state. Signatory of both the Belovezha Accords and the Alma-Ata Protocol. Signatory of the Alma-Ata Protocol. Founding state. Signatory of the Alma-Ata Protocol.
Moldova In light of Russia's continued occupation of breakaway regions within Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine as well as its violation of the Istanbul Agreement, legislative initiatives to denounce the agreement on the creation of CIS were tabled in Moldova's parliament on 25 March 2014, though they were not approved.In Moldova propose to denounce the agreement on creation of CIS . Ukrinform. 25 March 2014 A similar bill was proposed in January 2018.
On 14 June 2022, Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicu Popescu said the Moldovan government was considering the prospect of leaving the CIS, although at the end of May President Maia Sandu had said the country would not leave for the time being. An August 2021 poll conducted in Moldova (prior to the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine) found that 48.1% of respondents supported Moldova's withdrawal from the CIS.
On 30 November 2022, Popescu stated that Moldova would suspend its participation in CIS meetings, and on 23 February 2023 stated that Moldova had started withdrawing from multiple treaties that the country had signed with the CIS, as his country aimed to join the European Union. On 15 May 2023, the President of the Parliament of Moldova, Igor Grosu, stated the country would withdraw from the agreement establishing the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly; he argued that being in the CIS "did not protect the Republic of Moldova from energy blackmail in the middle of winter, from threats and official statements hostile to the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova".