The CIS without Georgia

Russia’s attack on Georgia has challenged the CIS. The largest member of the Commonwealth of Independent States has occupied the territory of another member country, a smaller one. This is unprecedented in the history of civilization. The CIS however has held no emergency session, made no attempt to stop the aggression and given neither condemnation nor approval, just as if nothing has happened. Only Ukraine has officially condemned the Russian aggression. There are mutual accusations only in Moscow and Tbilisi.

Georgia is indignant when one CIS member is bombing another and the other members pretend they are deaf and dumb. Moscow is also unsatisfied that other members of CIS did not applaud it when it was bulling Georgia. Some analysts however are saying that keeping silent and not vocally supporting Russia was a heroic act by the other CIS members.

In the Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, they have already started preparing documents which would renounce Ukraine’s membership of the CIS. Other members will just have to tolerate Russia’s dominant leadership because Georgia’s lesson was meant not only for Georgia but for them also. Azerbaijan and the Central Asian countries will now be more cautious about creating alternative energy routes to compete against Russia because their big northern neighbor has very convincing arguments in its possession.