CIS

CIS (CIS), governmental organization composed of former Soviet republics, a loose confederation of successor states to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Founded on December 8, 1991, the commonwealth originally consisted of three members—Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Two weeks after establishment of the commonwealth, eight other former Soviet republics—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—were also admitted as founding members, subject to the approval of their respective parliaments. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had become independent republics earlier in 1991 and declined to join the commonwealth. Georgia refrained from joining until 1993. The initial purpose of the Commonwealth was to provide a mechanism for the peaceful disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and to establish the foundation for post-Soviet interstate relations.

Members of the CIS function as independent states. A central authority modelled on the European Community (now called the European Union) was given restricted authority, including authority for establishing a common economic sphere and coordinating foreign and immigration policies, environmental protection, and crime fighting. The USSR was formally disbanded, and the states assumed ownership of its facilities. Leaders placed long-range nuclear and strategic weapons under the joint control of the Russian president and the commander and chief of the CIS Armed Forces, although the Ukrainian president insisted on retaining the right to cancel weapon launches from Ukrainian territory. Republic leaders agreed to honour the USSR's international agreements, including a policy of nuclear disarmament. Russia took the seat on the United Nations Security Council that had belonged to the USSR. The United States recognized the independence of the republics, and subsequently all the republics attained United Nations membership by 1992.

From its inception, the CIS was characterized by infighting between member states and a disregard for written declarations. According to original agreements, republics retained the right to have their own armed forces or national guard units. Republics adopted the Russian rouble as a common currency and agreed on principles of respect for human rights, the need to preserve ethnic minority cultures, and cooperation and coordination of reforms aimed at establishing free-market economies. Disputes soon emerged, however, over control of the Black Sea Fleet, formerly of the USSR, over economic reforms and the lifting of price controls, and over entrusting the disarmament of nuclear weapons in the member states to Russia. Ethnic and regional hostilities that had been restrained by decades of central Soviet authority soon re-emerged in civil wars in Georgia, Moldova, Tajikistan, and the North Caucasus area of Russia, and in war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Member parliaments failed to ratify many of the agreements concluded by republic representatives in the first year of the CIS. Several key declarations were supported by a bare majority of CIS members, such as the agreement on collective security, which was originally signed by only six members in 1992, and the CIS charter, which was signed by only seven member states in 1993. Sharp internal political disagreements developed in several republics, including Belarus, over CIS declarations. In addition, a fundamental disagreement arose between republics over the goals and purpose of the CIS. One camp, led by Russia and Kazakhstan, envisaged the CIS as a vehicle for closer economic and political integration, while another camp, led by Ukraine, visualized the CIS as a transitional organization preparing individual republics for complete independence.

In 1993 Kyrgyzstan ignored CIS procedure for introducing separate currencies and issued its own currency, the som, which prompted other states to prepare to abandon the rouble as a common currency of the commonwealth. During the same year the military mission of the CIS was altered when the CIS joint military command was abolished. Control over strategic weapons was transferred to Russia, which gained sole possession of nuclear launch codes.

In 1994 the CIS established an Inter-Governmental Economic Committee, with all states except Turkmenistan as members, to oversee joint economic policy. The United Nations gave the CIS observer status the same year. In 1996 Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia signed an even closer union: the Community of Integrated States, headed by a Supreme Inter-Governmental Council. In the same year, Belarus and Russia laid the foundation of a still more integrated entity by forming the Commonwealth of Sovereign Republics, with a Supreme Council at its head. By 1997 this had common citizenship and military policy, plus economic harmonization with the aim of creating a common currency.