CIS Summit: Moscow Plays Its Hand

Georgia promised to deliver terrorists, Armenia promised to pay off of its debts, and Belarus promised to work on the union with Russia
These are just a few issues that will be discussed on a bilateral level. Almost all leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States requested a personal meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

The agenda of the CIS summit is rather trivial. It is basically divided into two parts: exchanging opinions on major international problems and discussing possible ways of to improve the CIS state structures. As far as the second part of the agenda is concerned, it is all about the state of the commonwealth itself. It has been more than ten years since it was created, but now it is experiencing a strong decline. Integration within the CIS is growing, but commodity circulation is decreasing. The countries of the commonwealth are basically indentified by no visa regimes (except for Georgia) and privileged discounts by Russian energy carriers.

The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze is the event of the summit. There has been a lot of controversy between Russia and Georgia recently, so the media’s attention was attracted to this issue. Putin and Shevardnadze discussed the situation in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia. The presidents agreed to military cooperation and on the delivery of the terrorists who are detained in Georgia.

In the words of the Russian president, Russia and Georgia decided that they both have to develop collaboration between the border agencies. Vladimir Putin said that both Russian and Georgian border guards might soon patrol the state border together.

Commenting on the meeting with the Georgian president, Vladimir Putin stated that Eduard Shevardnadze understood Russia’s position. The Russian president gave his hope that there were certain positive changes in the relations between Russia and Georgia. Putin also declared that everything on which Russia and Georgia agreed upon would be implemented.

Another intriguing aspect of the summit is the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus. Lukashenko has not been really friendly to Moscow lately. It goes without saying that the presidents will spend a lot of time talking about the problems of the unified state.

Actually, there has never been political opposition between Russia and Belarus. The problem is actually about several politicians that used the relations between Russia and Belarus to settle their own issues. There have been six contracts on the establishment of the unified sate prepared. However, 90% of their contents is very good for the bin, basically. Putin has virtually acknowledged that. What is more surprising is that Belarussian President Lukashenko eventually announced that he was willing to work on the base of the old variant of the contract: political integration with the preservation of sovereignty. This is comparable to fried ice, really.

On the photo: Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko

Dmitry Chirkin PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov