Leaders from ex-Soviet states look for ways to keep CIS afloat

Agence France Presse — English
June 3, 2005 Friday 12:27 PM GMT

TBILISI June 3 — Leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States met
in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Friday to discuss ways to breathe
life into the loose and increasingly divided alliance of Russia and
11 other ex-Soviet republics.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov responded to internal divisions
over the direction of the CIS with a call for unity. “We don’t see
any serious problems in relations with these countries… We are
still aiming for integration,” Fradkov said.

The group’s executive secretary, Russia’s former interior minister
Vladimir Rushailo, said: “It is too early to bury the CIS. It is
necessary to boost its effectiveness, even if there are certain
difficulties.”

“I believe that a new model and strategy for the CIS will be decided
in the very near future,” he said.

The new emphasis would be on economic and security ties, he said,
something which Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulya Timoshenko indicated she
supported. “The future of the CIS is in the economic sphere,” she said.

The CIS, which includes all ex-Soviet republics except for the three
Baltic countries, has struggled since its creation at the fall of
the Soviet Union in December 1991 to establish its priorities.

Many of the former republics chafe at the sense that the
Russian-dominated CIS is a vehicle for Moscow to wield influence
in its backyard. Several of the autocratic regimes in the CIS have
also been unnerved by the revolutions that shook Georgia, Ukraine
and Kyrgyzstan in the last 18 months following rigged elections.

Georgia and Ukraine have expressed strong hopes of joining Western
institutions, further weakening CIS unity.

The split was particulary acute over Ukraine, where Russian
President Vladimir Putin supported the candidate accused of rigging
last year’s presidential election, which was later re-run amid huge
street protests, then won by pro-Western opposition candidate Viktor
Yushchenko.

Timoshenko has yet to visit Russia following a row over the Russian
authorities’ announcement that she is wanted on fraud charges.

Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi are also problematic, although
one major sticking point was recently cleared with a Russian agreement
to pull two military bases out by the end of 2008.

Fradkov said that Moscow is also looking into removing visa
requirements for Georgians, which were imposed in 2000 amid sharply
deteriorating relations.

The premiers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Moldava, Tajikistan Ukraine and Russia attended the meeting, as well
as officials from Kyrygzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress