1. COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES BY: B. HART

2. WHAT IS THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES? The Commonwealth of Independent States is a confederation of independent states that were formerly constituent republics of the Soviet Union, established in 1991. Member states are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It was created to help ease the dissolution of the Soviet Union and coordinate interrepublican affairs. Most of the former Soviet republics are members.

3. FACTS ABOUT THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization Founded on December 8 th, 1991 by Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine Currently, there are nine full member states which include: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan Leadership has transferred between Russian and Belarusian leaders, no other countries have had someone lead the Commonwealth.

4. PRIMARY GOAL Since its founding, the primary goal of the CIS has been to provide a way for the independent states to discuss issues regarding social and economic development. “Human Rights” is what the Commonwealth pride themselves on promoting in their meetings and description. However, some CIS members have very poor human rights records, like Uzbekistan and the 2005 Andijan Massacre.

5. CONTROVERSIAL ACTIVITIES INVOLVING THE CIS In 2005, the CIS challenged the validity of an election that they deemed “too democratic,” their party was the losing one, as expected. Moldovan authorities refused to invite CIS observers in the Moldovan parliamentary elections in 2005, an action Russia publically criticized. Many dozens such observers from Belarus and Russia were stopped from reaching Moldovan.

6. SOURCES http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Commonwealth+of+Independent+States http://www.cisstat.com/eng/cis.htm http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/128945/Commonwealth-of- Independent-States-CIS http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/128945/Commonwealth-of- Independent-States-CIS