Member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States

There are 9 member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Membership status

The Creation Agreement remained the main constituent document of the CIS until January 1993, when the ''CIS Charter'' (russian: Устав, ''Ustav'') was adopted.CIS Charter
, 22 January 1993 (unofficial English translation)
Russian text here
The charter formalized the concept of membership: a member country is defined as a country that ratifies the CIS Charter (sec. 2, art. 7). Parties to CIS Creation Agreement but not the Charter are considered to be "Founding States" but not a full members.

Turkmenistan has not ratified the Charter and therefore is not formally a member of the CIS. Nevertheless, it has consistently participated in the CIS as if it were a member state. Turkmenistan changed its CIS standing to associate member as of 26 August 2005 in order to be consistent with its UN-recognised international neutrality status.Decision on Turkmenistan's associate membership
CIS Executive Committee meeting in Kazan, Russia, 26 August 2005 .
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 29 August 2005.

In light of Russia's support for the independence of breakaway regions within Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine, as well as its violation of the Istanbul Agreement (see Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty), legislative initiatives to denounce the agreement on the creation of CIS were tabled in Moldova's parliament on 25 March 2014, though they were not approved. A similar bill was proposed in January 2018.

List of members

Parties of the Creation Agreement

Two states, Ukraine and Turkmenistan, have ratified the CIS Creation Agreement, making them "founding states of the CIS", but did not ratify the subsequent Charter that would make them members of the CIS. These states, while not being formal members of the CIS, were allowed to participate in CIS. They were also allowed to participate in various CIS initiatives, e.g. the Commonwealth of Independent States Free Trade Area, which were, however, formulated mostly as independent multilateral agreements, and not as internal CIS agreements. Additionally, Ukraine became an associate member state of the CIS Economic Union in 1994 and Turkmenistan an associate member state of the CIS in 2005.

Ukraine

Although Ukraine was one of the states which ratified the Creation Agreement in December 1991, making it a Founding State of the CIS, it chose not to ratify the CIS Charter as it disagrees with Russia being the only legal successor state to the Soviet Union. Thus it has never been a full a member of the CIS.Ratification status of CIS documents as of 15 January 2008
(Russian) However, Ukraine kept participating in the CIS, despite not being a member. In 1993, Ukraine became an associate member of CIS,

Following the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, relations between Ukraine and Russia deteriorated, leading Ukraine to consider ending its participation in the CIS. As Ukraine never ratified the Charter, it could cease its informal participation in the CIS. However, to fully terminate its relationship with the CIS it would need to legally withdraw from the Creation Agreement, as Georgia did previously. On 14 March 2014, a bill was introduced to Ukraine's parliament to denounce their ratification of the CIS Creation Agreement, but it was never approved. Following the 2014 parliamentary election, a new bill to denounce the CIS agreement was introduced. In September 2015, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Ukraine will continue taking part in the CIS "on a selective basis".Ukraine to selectively work as part of CIS
BelTA (21 September 2015) Since that month, Ukraine has had no representatives in the CIS Executive Committee building. In April 2018, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko indicated that Ukraine would formally leave the CIS. As of 1 June the CIS secretariat had not received formal notice from Ukraine of its withdrawal from the CIS, a process which will take 1 year following notice being given.

On 19 May 2018, President Poroshenko signed a decree formally ending Ukraine's participation in CIS statutory bodies. The CIS secretariat stated that it will continue inviting Ukraine to participate. Ukraine has further stated that it intends to review its participation in all CIS agreements, and only continue in those that are in its interests. The CIS secretariat stated that they will keep inviting Ukraine to participate in CIS activities.

Former member states

Georgia

Following the overthrow of Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia, Georgia officially withdrew from the Council of Defense Ministers in February 2006 with a statement that "Georgia has taken a course to join NATO and it cannot be part of two military structures simultaneously",

In the aftermath of the Russo-Georgian War in 2008, President Saakashvili announced during a public speech in the capital city Tbilisi that Georgia would leave the CISGeorgia intends to leave the CIS
on CNN.com, 12 August 2008. and the Georgian Parliament voted unanimously on 14 August 2008 to withdraw from the regional organization.Georgian parliament votes to withdraw from CIS
on BBC News, 14 August 2008 On 18 August 2008 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia sent a note to the CIS Executive Committee notifying it of the aforesaid resolutions of the Parliament of Georgia and Georgia’s withdrawal from CIS.Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia on Georgia's withdrawal from CIS
, 18 August 2008. In accordance with the CIS Charter (sec. 1, art. 9), Georgia's withdrawal came into effect 12 months later, on 18 August 2009.
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References

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Commonwealth of Independent States