1991 became fatal for the USSR, because at that time the great power ceased to exist. In its place were 15 independent states that began a different life.
Formation of a new political system
On December 8, 1991, the heads of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus - the three largest states of the former Soviet Union - gathered in the Belarusian Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Their goal was to conclude a contract. Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich signed an agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
This document had a Preamble and 14 Articles. It said that the USSR had ceased to exist. However, based on the historical commonality of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples, according to the previously concluded bilateral agreements, etc., the formation of the CIS was necessary and expedient.
Soviet President Gorbachev reacted negatively to the emergence of the Commonwealth, which did not prevent the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation from ratifying it on December 12, 1991. In Belarus and Ukraine, the Agreement on the Establishment of the CIS was also ratified.
The Belovezhskaya Agreements (named after the place of signing) indicated that the countries of the former Soviet Socialist Republic and others could join the CIS. On December 13, 1991, on the initiative of Nazarbayev, a meeting of the heads of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Armenia was held in Ashgabat, who declared their desire to join the CIS. However, the representatives of these countries demanded that their participation in the Commonwealth be equal along with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Later, Azerbaijan and Moldova joined the CIS. In 1993, Georgia became part of the CIS, which withdrew from it after the events of 2008.
Legal bases
The CIS existed on the basis of the Charter approved on December 22 of the same year. Its goal was proclaimed the creation of a single economic, social, political, ecological and humanitarian space by the allied countries. Between the states of the CIS, preferential conditions for crossing the borders were to be in effect, a free trade zone was established.
The interaction of the CIS with other international organizations became an important point. In 1994, the UN General Assembly granted the CIS observer status. Back in 1992, the CIS member states announced a peacekeeping policy in relation to each other. In this way, the leaders tried to avoid violence and threats of violence against each other. For a long time, this Kiev agreement was strictly observed. After all, the maintenance of peace and stability was proclaimed an essential condition for the existence of the Commonwealth.
