Commonwealth of Independent States

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of states in Eurasia. It was formed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of 20,368,759 km² (7,864,422 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 246,200,194. The CIS encourages countries to work together on economic, political, and military matters. It also has some power to coordinate trade, money, laws, and security, including preventing crime that crosses borders.

As the USSR broke apart, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine signed the Belovezha Accords on 8 December 1991. In this agreement, they declared that the Union had effectively stopped existing and set up the CIS in its place. On 21 December, these three former Soviet republics and eight more signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which set out the founding declarations and principles of the CIS. Georgia joined in 1993, but it withdrew in 2008 after a war with Russia. Ukraine formally ended its part in the CIS's official bodies in 2018, though it had already stopped taking part in the organisation after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. Following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moldova began to pull out of the CIS framework. This led to it ending its agreement to the CIS treaty, protocol, and charter on 8 April 2026.

Eight of the nine CIS member states take part in the CIS Free Trade Area. Three other organisations grew out of the CIS. These are the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union (which includes the Eurasian Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Space), and the Union State. The first two are military and economic alliances. The third aims to create a supranational union of Russia and Belarus, with a shared government and currency.

History and structure

See also: Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Near abroad, and Eurasian economic integration

In March 1991, amid Perestroika and a growing political crisis, Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union, proposed a federation through a referendum to keep the Union as a union of sovereign republics. The new treaty was never signed, because Communist Party hardliners staged a coup attempt in Moscow that August. After the August coup collapsed, many Soviet republics declared independence. A week after the Ukrainian independence referendum was held, the Commonwealth of Independent States was founded on 8 December 1991 by the Byelorussian SSR, the Russian SFSR, and the Ukrainian SSR. Their leaders met at the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Natural Reserve, about 50 km (31 mi) north of Brest in Belarus, and signed the agreement known as the Belovezha Accords. On 21 December 1991, leaders of eight more former Soviet republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, bringing the number of participating countries to 11. Georgia joined in December 1993. The three former republics that did not take part were the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The Soviet of the Republics formally dissolved the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991.

After the Soviet Union broke up, Russia and the Central Asian republics were weakened economically and their GDP declined. Post-Soviet states carried out economic reforms and privatisation. On 22 January 1993, the Charter of the CIS was signed, setting up its institutions, their functions, and its rules. Ukraine and Turkmenistan did not ratify the charter, so they took part without becoming member states. Turkmenistan became an associate member in August 2005. Georgia left the CIS in 2009, and Ukraine stopped participating in 2018. The work of the CIS is coordinated by the general secretary. Main article: General Secretary of the CIS. The CIS Interparliamentary Assembly was set up in Kazakhstan on 27 March 1992 and is housed in the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg. It acts as the advisory parliamentary wing of the CIS.

General secretaries

Name	Term
Ivan Korotchenya	14 May 1993 – 29 April 1998
Boris Berezovsky	29 April 1998 – 4 March 1999
Ivan Korotchenya	4 March 1999 – 2 April 1999
Yury Yarov	2 April 1999 – 14 July 2004
Vladimir Rushailo	14 July 2004 – 5 October 2007
Sergei Lebedev	5 October 2007 – present

Membership

There are nine full member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The CIS Charter was adopted in January 1993 and made membership formal: a member is a country that ratifies the Charter. New members can join if all current members agree. Countries that ratified the earlier Creation Agreement before the Charter was adopted are called "Founding states," but they are not members.

Some countries have left or stepped back from the CIS. In March and April 2026, Moldova's government and Parliament of Moldova approved ending three CIS treaties, and Moldova will stop being a member on 8 April 2027. Ukraine signed the Belovezha Accords and the Alma-Ata Protocol in 1991 and remained a founding state because it never ratified the Charter. It formally ended its participation in CIS statutory bodies in 2018. Turkmenistan has also not ratified the Charter, and it became an associate member in 2005. Georgia left the CIS after the Russo-Georgian War in 2008, and its withdrawal took effect on 18 August 2009.

Country	Signed	Agreement ratified	Charter ratified
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
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
Tajikistan	21 December 1991	26 June 1993	14 August 1993
Uzbekistan	21 December 1991	4 January 1992	9 February 1994

Country	Signed	Agreement ratified	Charter ratified	Associate from
Turkmenistan	21 December 1991	26 December 1991	Not ratified	August 2005

Country	Signed	Agreement ratified	Charter ratified
Ukraine	8 December 1991	10 December 1991	Not ratified

Country	Signed	Agreement ratified	Charter ratified	Withdrawn	Effective
Georgia	3 December 1993	3 December 1993	19 April 1994	18 August 2008	18 August 2009

Politics

Human rights

Since it began, one of the CIS's main goals has been to give newly independent states a place to talk about social and economic development. Member states agreed to promote and protect human rights. At first this was only a matter of goodwill statements, but in 1995 the CIS adopted a Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. A Human Rights Commission had been set up in 1993, with its seat in Minsk, Belarus. The 1995 treaty entered into force in 1998. It is based on the European Convention on Human Rights, but it does not have the same strong ways of enforcing its rules. Many activists say that human rights in CIS countries, especially in Central Asia, remain among the world's poorest. They point to the 2005 Andijan massacre in Uzbekistan as one example. The CIS still faces serious challenges in meeting even basic international standards.

Military

Main articles: Collective Security Treaty Organization, United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Council of Ministers of Defense of the CIS, and Joint CIS Air Defense System

The CIS Charter set up the Council of Ministers of Defence to coordinate military cooperation among member states that wish to take part. In 1992, six former Soviet states signed the Collective Security Treaty, which took effect in 1994. When it was renewed, three countries left, leaving Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan as members. In 2002, six member states agreed to create the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) as a military alliance. Conflicts between members, including Russia's actions in Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova and the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, have shown that the treaty and the CSTO have not been very effective at resolving disputes between CIS members.

Economy

See also: Economy of the Soviet Union

Corruption and bureaucracy are serious problems for trade in CIS countries. Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed that CIS members take up a digitisation agenda to modernise CIS economies.

Economic data

Main articles: GOST and List of GOST standards

GOST standards were first developed by the government of the Soviet Union. After the USSR broke up, they became regional standards. They are now run by the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology, and Certification (EASC), a standards organisation chartered by the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Main articles: free trade agreement and free trade area

In 1993, leaders of a number of CIS states signed an agreement to help their economies develop steadily and raise living standards. The CIS trade rules let member states make free trade deals with other countries, and they allow differentiated integration (also called à la carte and multi-speed Europe).

In April 1994, the presidents of 12 countries signed an agreement to set up a free trade area. Many countries later completed it, and it led mostly to separate bilateral trade deals rather than free trade among all members.

In April 1999, the presidents of 11 countries signed a protocol that replaced the bilateral system with a single multilateral free trade system. Turkmenistan did not take part.

In October 2011, eight CIS prime ministers signed a new free trade agreement in St. Petersburg. Several countries later ratified it, but the agreement still has exemptions that will be phased out over time. Azerbaijan is the only full CIS member state not to take part in this free trade area.

In June 2023, seven countries signed an agreement on free trade in services in Sochi.

Social development of the CIS countries

As of 2011, the CIS countries as a whole were a zone of social disadvantage. When surveys asked people if they felt poor, the results were often much higher than the official figures. For example, 42% of people in Ukraine felt poor, while the official level was 28%. In Russia, 42% felt poor, while the official figure was 13%.

At the end of December 2015, only 1% of registered unemployed people in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan received unemployment benefits, compared with 85% in Russia. Average monthly salaries in 2015 were low, ranging from $142 in Tajikistan to $565 in Kazakhstan. In several countries, more than half of people spent over half of their salary on food, and salaries were often paid late.

Other activities

The CIS-Election Monitoring Organisation is an election monitoring body that was formed in October 2002. It has sent election observers to CIS member countries since then. Scholars have described CIS election monitoring as low-quality, because the CIS tends to approve elections that are obviously flawed. Independent observers have criticised many of the elections it approved. For example, the CIS questioned the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, which followed the Orange Revolution, while the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) found no significant problems. In March 2005, the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency reported that Ukraine had suspended its participation in the CIS election monitoring organisation. Moldovan authorities refused to invite CIS observers to the 2005 Moldovan parliamentary elections. The CIS called the Kyrgyz parliamentary elections of 2005 "well-organized, free, and fair", but the OSCE said they fell short of international standards. The Interparliamentary Assembly described the 2010 local elections in Ukraine as well organised, while the Council of Europe found problems and the Obama administration said they did not meet standards for openness and fairness. Russia has urged that the Russian language become official in all CIS member states, but it is currently official in only four states: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It is also official in Transnistria and the autonomous region of Gagauzia in Moldova. After the Ukrainian 2010 election, President Yanukovych said that "Ukraine will continue to promote the Ukrainian language as its only state language."

When the Soviet Union broke up in December 1991, its sports teams had been invited to or had qualified for various 1992 sports events, and a joint CIS team took their place in some of them. The "Unified Team" competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics and 1992 Summer Olympics, and a CIS association football team competed in UEFA Euro 1992. A CIS bandy team played some friendly matches and made its last appearance at the Russian Government Cup, where it also played against the Russia national bandy team. The Soviet Union bandy championship for 1991–1992 was renamed a CIS championship, which lasted just one year before it became Russian bandy. In 2017, a festival of national sports and games was held in Ulyanovsk. Its main sports included sambo, tug of war, mas-wrestling, gorodki, belt wrestling, lapta, bandy (rink), kettlebell lifting, chess and archery. The first CIS games took place in Kazan in 2021 with 9 nations and 2,000 athletes, and the second games took place in Belarus in 2023. The CIS has also supported cultural ties between former Soviet republics. In 2006, the Council of the Heads of Governments of the CIS launched the Intergovernmental Foundation for Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Cooperation (IFESCCO), which has relied substantially on Russia's financial support and backed events such as the "CIS Capital of Culture" initiative. In 2017, the Armenian city of Goris was declared the CIS Cultural Capital of the year, and in 2022 it was Karakol in Kyrgyzstan.

Demographics

The combined population of all member states is 246,200,194 as of 2024.

Life expectancy

Life expectancy at birth shows how long people in each country of the CIS are expected to live. These numbers are for 2021 and come from the World Bank Group. They are listed below.

Post-Soviet organisations and initiatives outside CIS framework

Main article: Post-Soviet states

Main articles: Eurasian Economic Community, Customs Union of the Eurasian Economic Union, and EAEU

Main article: Eurasian Economic Space

Main article: Union State

Main article: Central Asian Cooperation Organization

Main article: Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations

Main article: GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development

Several groups were formed by post-Soviet states outside the CIS. In 2003, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan agreed in principle to create a common economic space, which could one day lead to a single currency. The Verkhovna Rada approved the plan that year, but most people believe that Viktor Yushchenko's victory in the Ukrainian presidential election of 2004 was a major setback, because he wanted closer ties with the European Union. Later, Viktor Yanukovych said Ukraine could not join the customs union because of WTO rules. The Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia was created in 2010. In 2015 it was renamed the Eurasian Customs Union and expanded to include Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

In 1991, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan formed the Central Asian Commonwealth. The group changed its name several times and merged with the Eurasian Economic Community in 2006. The disputed states of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria are members of the Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations, which aims to bring its members closer together. The GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development brings together Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

Assessments and criticism

Abulfaz Elchibey, the second president of Azerbaijan, called the CIS a "big collective farm" that Russia uses to keep its old empire alive. He said the rights of each state, including Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijana, should have been protected, and that CIS leaders had not made a serious attempt to solve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict or other conflicts in the post-Soviet zone. He also said Russian troops were being used to push Georgians out of Abkhazia, where the Abkhazians live. Russian diplomat A. Denisov disagrees that Russia uses the CIS to rebuild the USSR. He says the CIS makes decisions by consensus, any member can veto a decision, and states choose which projects to join.

Mikhail Krotov, a Russian scientist and civil servant who headed the Council of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly from 1992 to 2012, writes that the end of the USSR was directly linked to the creation of the CIS. He points to the signing of the Belovezha Accords on 8 December 1991 and the Alma Ata Declaration on 21 December 1991. He also says Ukraine did not sign even a weakened version of the CIS founding document. Zbigniew Brzezinski, an American expert on world politics, believed that Ukraine's actions stopped the CIS from becoming just a new name for a more federal USSR.

Coins

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has minted several commemorative coins dedicated to the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In 2006, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus issued commemorative coins "Commonwealth of Independent States. 15 years" in denominations of 1 (copper-nickel) and 20 (silver, 925) white rubles.