CIS WAS SOLE ALTERNATIVE TO SOVIET UNION – YELTSIN
Itar-Tass
07.12.2006, 11.02
MOSCOW, December 7 (Itar-Tass) – Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin
believes that the transformation of the former Soviet Union into the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was inevitable.
He said in an interview with Rossiskaya Gazeta published on Thursday
that that at the beginning of 1991, the "economic situation in the
Soviet Union was close to a collapse", triggering a political crisis
in the country.
A string of bloody conflicts flared up in the once stable and
unshakable Soviet Union: the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the gruesome
events in Tbilisi and in the Baltic republics.
"Union authority every time made mistakes, now not acknowledging
apparent facts and now using excessive force", which "could not but
lead to a crisis of trust between the national republics and Moscow".
"It became apparent to the Kremlin that the Soviet Union cannot be
held within the old framework. And then the decision was made on the
establishment of a new Union treaty with new, broadened powers of
the republics within the USSR," Yeltsin said.
The treaty most likely would have been signed if it were not for the
putsch in August 1991 that "buried all accords on the establishment
of a new union," he said.
"Creating the CIS, leaders of the republics tried to mitigate the
consequences that the residents of the former Soviet Union could
experience from the collapse of the state."
Yeltsin stressed that "thanks to the establishment of the CIS, global
shocks, potential wars between the former republics, financial and
humanitarian catastrophes were avoided".
"I still believe that the creation of the CIS was the sole alternative
to an inevitable and uncontrollable collapse of the former Soviet
Union. And I now express gratitude to all who signed our treaty on
the creation of the CIS for shown responsibility to history and their
peoples," Yeltsin said.
He admitted that he is nostalgic for the gone USSR.
He added "it should not be forgotten that people had a very hard time
in the recent years of the USSR, both materially and spiritually. All
have somehow forgotten now what are empty counters, what it is like
to be afraid to tell your thoughts that run counter to the ‘general
line of the party’. But this must not be forgotten on any account".