Historical Dictionary of the Russian Federation

COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES

Commonwealth of Independent States: translation

(CIS)
Intergovernmental organization. In the wake of theAugust Coupof 1991, the leaders of theunion republics, excluding theBaltic StatesandGeorgia, strove to preserve some aspects of the union that had bound their countries together since 1922. However, political expediency, domestic issues, and popular resentment at the now-defunctCommunist Party of the Soviet Union(CPSU) made the conversion of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) into a proposed Union of Sovereign States a nonstarter during thedissolution of the Soviet Union. TheNew Union Treatyfailed to be ratified, and in early December 1991, the leaders of Russia,Belarus, andUkrainemet outside Minsk to sign theBelavezha Accords. This meeting produced the Creation Agreement, which abolished the Soviet Union and established a loose confederation known as the Commonwealth of Independent States.
On 21 December,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Turkmenistan,Uzbekistan,Tajikistan,Moldova,Azerbaijan, andArmeniajoined, bringing the organization to 11 members.Georgia, in the midst of its own civil war, waited until 1993 to become part of the group. The Baltic States, which had been annexed during World War II, abstained from any post-Soviet alliances with Russia. Ukraine and Turkmenistan, though signatories to the CIS treaty, have never ratified the CIS charter, making the former a participating member and the latter an associate member. In the wake of the 2008South Ossetian War, Georgia declared its intention to leave the CIS by the end of 2009.
The purpose of the CIS is to provide a regional framework for security, economic, political, and legal cooperation among its members. While the CIS meets regularly and engages in policy discussions, the organization has few powers, causing it to be often referred to as a “paper tiger.” Substantive cooperation occurs in the CIS’ affiliated organizations such as theCollective Security Treaty Organizationand theEurasian Economic Community. During theYeltsinadministration, the Russian Federation used the CIS as a mechanism forpeacekeepingoperations inCentral Asia, theCaucasus, and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
The CIS was thus seen as a postimperial extension of the Kremlin’s power, giving rise to the notion of aMonroeski Doctrine. UnderVladimir Putin, the organization has been reinvigorated, after almost passing out of existence in 1998–1999. Recently, it has been used as a tool to stanch the spread of so-calledcolor revolutionsacross post-Soviet space. Since 2000, the CIS has also engaged in election monitoring in the region and backed the increased use of theRussian languagein its member states. While the CIS has never evolved into a Eurasian counterpart to theEuropean Union, it remains a forum for discussion and debate among the former Soviet republics. In 1992, the CIS sent a joint team to the Barcelona Olympic Games; such cooperation was not repeated in subsequent Olympiads.
See alsoForeign relations.

  1. commonwealth of independent states—Содружество Независимых Государств СНГ...Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь
  2. commonwealth of independent states—СНГ Содружество Независимых Государств бывш. СССР...Англо-русский словарь идиом
  3. commonwealth of independent states—сокр. CIS Содружество Независимых Государств СНГ...Англо-русский словарь общей лексики
  4. commonwealth of independent states—Содружество Независимых Государств СНГ Создано ....Англо-русский словарь по патентам и товарным знакам
  5. commonwealth of independent states—сокр. CIS Содружество независимых государств СНГ...Англо-русский словарь политической терминологии
  6. commonwealth of independent states—Содружество Независимых Государств...Англо-русский терминологический словарь МИД России
  7. commonwealth of independent states—сокр. CIS общ.u Содружество независимых государств СНГ добровольное межгосударственное объединение образованное республиками бывшего СССР исключая Эстонию Латвию и Литву ...Англо-русский экономический словарь
  8. commonwealth of independent states—скор. CIS Спвдружнсть незалежних держав СНД...Англо-украинский бизнес словарь
  9. commonwealth of independent states—[kmnwelvndpendntstets] геогр.Содружество Независимых Государств СНГ...Новый большой англо-русский словарь
  10. commonwealth of independent states—Commonwealth of Independent States [kmnwelvndpendntstets] геогр.i Содружество Независимых Государств СНГ...Новый большой англо-русский словарь II
  11. commonwealth of independent states—kmnwelvndpendntstets геогр. Содружество Независимых Государств СНГ...Новый большой англо-русский словарь под общим руководством акад. Ю.Д. Апресяна