The Commonwealth of Independent States

I have watched recently a documentary programme about the collapse of the Soviet Union and establishment of the CIS. As the programme had mentioned plenty about Ukraine, it was very interesting for me.

What is the CIS?
the Commonwealth of Independent States is a loose confederation which consists of former Soviet republics except the Baltic states.

How did the CIS start?
The CIS was founded in 1991, in the process of dissolution of the Soviet Union. The original members were Russia, Ukraine and Beralus, later all the former Soviet Republics except the Baltic states joined. The CIS was described as "dangerous and illegal" by the Soviet president Gorbachev, but the Soviet had not had enough power to stop them establishing the CIS. As the collapse of the Soviet Union had been obvious, it was urgent to decide how nuclear weapons were to be dealt with.

What are the principles behind the CIS?
The CIS was declared with collapse of the Soviet Union, but the organisation had the tendency of allowing Russia to maintain its influence over the members. The CIS stated that all the nuclear weapons belong to Russia though Ukraine had wanted to possess them and most of the special privileges still remain Russian. The organisation is headquartered in Minsk, Beralus. Russia and Beralus formed the Union of Russia and Belarus, which is a union like the Soviet Union itself. All of the secretary generals of the CIS were elected from Russia and Beralus. These are the principles of the CIS which is almost controlled by Russia.

What are the benefits of being a member?
A dominant benefit have not been found in my research, because the English website of the CIS was almost empty. However it was supposed that there had been some benefits. At first a member was able to keep good relations with Russia, that is to say, it had been provided with natural resources at an affordable price. Secondly the rulers of a member were able to keep their Soviet style dictatorship. The leaders of the CIS did not change for decades. However, the circumstances have been changed since the Orange revolution in Ukraine. The CIS might not be expected to develop, or President Putin might re-establish the Soviet Union with natural resources. This might be one of the big reasons why I am interesterd in eastern Europe and I am going to Ukraine next week.