In February 1992, instead of the main favorite, the USSR national team, the team came to the French Olympic Games in Albertville under the name of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), incomprehensible to most rivals and fans, and without a national flag with an anthem. After more than 20 years, what the CIS is and why it was created, they have almost forgotten in the former Soviet Union itself, which has long turned into 15 states that are not always friendly with each other with a common history and a different present and future.
On the ruins of the USSR
The story of the emergence of the CIS on the wreckage of the Soviet Union destroyed almost overnight recalls the banal scene of the separation of two lovers who said goodbye to each other: "Let's get out and stay just friends!". It recalls in the sense that, having ceased to be a single country, the former union republics, or rather, some of their political figures, made an attempt to maintain at least the appearance of their former truly friendly relations. And they created a supranational and, in fact, not too legitimate public organization without clear goals and objectives. Only a passionate fighter with windmills from the novel of Cervantes could recognize that which was legal or even simply having life prospects.
Having declared his seemingly sincere desire during the creation of the CIS, to develop further allied relations based on the principles of voluntariness, mutual respect and recognition of state sovereignty, the eleven Commonwealth republics almost immediately ran to their new sovereign "houses" -countries. As a result, he quickly turned a good idea on paper into profanity. However, they can also be understood: is it up to the CIS when there are a lot of things to do at home. In the end, everyone has more than just the past
.From Moscow to Brest
Officially, the creation on the territory of the former Soviet Union of an actually international organization called the CIS, the purpose of which was called to continue cooperation of the republics in matters of politics, economy, culture and even defense, was announced on December 8, 1991. This decision was the result of an informal meeting of six leaders and chairmen of the Councils of Ministers of three republics that were still Soviet at that time. It took place in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha located in the Belarusian reserve, familiar to many from the famous song, the hunting estate of the Central Committee of the CPSU "Viskuli". And Russians Boris Yeltsin and Gennady Burbulis, Ukrainians Leonid Kravchuk and Vitold Fokin, Belarusians Stanislav Shushkevich and Vyacheslav Kebich took part in it.
It is curious that even the place and time of the secret meeting was not even made known to Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the USSR, which continued to exist. He learned about it only from KGB officers, but he did not give an order to arrest the actual conspirators. And soon he lost his post. It was by the name of the forest located near the Polish border that the agreement was called "Bialowieza". By the way, five of the six main participants, except for Yeltsin, are still alive today. But in active politics there is only one - the Belarusian opposition and pensioner Shushkevich.
Observers from Afghanistan
The document, which, in addition to the preamble, included 14 more articles, recorded the termination of the USSR and the formation of the CIS on its basis. Where not only those who founded the Commonwealth of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSR, but also all other union republics could voluntarily enter. Subsequently, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan exercised this right. In 1993, Georgia also joined the organization, which left it six years after the military conflict with Russia in South Ossetia.
In addition to Georgia, other losses occurred: in 2005, Turkmenistan changed its full status to an “observer” (Afghanistan and Mongolia also possess it), and in 2014, belligerent Ukraine announced its withdrawal. On December 30, 1991, all CIS participants signed an agreement in Minsk on the Council of Heads of State and on its leader. The first was elected President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, and the current is his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko. Finally, the creation of the Commonwealth ended on January 22, 1993. And also in Minsk, where the main document was approved - the Charter.
