Commonwealth of Independent States
This article is part of theHistory of Russia series. |
Early Russian East Slavs |
Kievan Rus' |
Khazaria |
Muscovy |
Mongol invasion of Russia |
Imperial Russia and Russian Tsars |
Russian Revolution |
Russian Civil War |
Soviet Union |
Warsaw Pact |
Collapse of the Soviet Union |
Commonwealth of Independent States |
History of post-communist Russia |
List of famous Russians |
During the collapse of the Soviet Union in the fall of 1991, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met on December 8 in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nature Reserve, about 30 miles north of Brest in Belarus, and signed an agreement establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On December 21, 1991, 11 of the 15 Soviet Socialist Republics met in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, and signed the charter. (The three Baltic republics – Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia – refused to join, as did Georgia.)
The charter stated that all the members were independent states and thereby effectively abolished the USSR.
The headquarters of the CIS is in Minsk. The 11 original member states were Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. In December 1993, Georgia also joined the commonwealth.
Although the CIS has few supranational powers, the commonwealth is more than a purely symbolic organization. It has coordinating powers in the realm of trade, finance, lawmaking and security. The most significant issue for CIS is the establishment of a free trade zone / economic union between the member states, planned to become a reality in 2005.
During the Olympic Games of 1992 (in Albertville and Barcelona), the athletes from the CIS member states competed as the Unified Team. In other sports events in that year, such as the European Championships in football, athletes took part as representatives of the CIS.
