Many observers in Russia and abroad believe that recent events in Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova have rung the death knell for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the fragile association that rose up in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union ... Council for Foreign and Defense Policy Chairman Sergei Karaganov [said] that the CIS has essentially fulfilled its function whatever the hell it was and should be radically reformed ... National Strategy Institute Director Stanislav Belkovskii had called for "burying the CIS" whilst banging his shoe on the podiumand creating a new alliance of countries loyal to Moscow. This part's kinda cute:Belkovskii dubbed this alliance the USSR, an acronym from the Russian words for "Commonwealth of Countries Allied to Russia." When your 'sphere of influence' is Belarus ... well, I guess you're in the proverbial tall grass. |