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| Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)Содружество Независимых Государств (СНГ) |
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|
 Member state Associate member State announced intent to leave CIS Participant in some projects |
| Headquarters |  Minsk, Belarus |
| Working language | Russian |
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| Type | Commonwealth |
| Membership | 9 member states
1 associate member
1 participant |
| Leaders |
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| - | Executive Secretary |  Sergei Lebedev |
| Establishment | 21 December 1991 |
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| Population |
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| - | 2008 estimate | 277,983,490 |
Website
cis.minsk.by |
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (Russian: Содружество Независимых Государств (СНГ), transliterated Sodruzhestvo Nezavisimykh Gosudarstv (SNG)) is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics.
The CIS is not a superstate, and it is comparable to a loose confederation similar to the original European Community rather than today’s European Union. Although the CIS has few supranational powers, it is more than a purely symbolic organization, possessing coordinating powers in the realm of trade, finance, lawmaking, and security. It has also promoted cooperation on democratization and cross-border crime prevention. As a regional organization, CIS participates in UN peacekeeping forces.
There is disagreement among CIS countries about whether to deepen their own relationship as a separate bloc, or whether to seek greater ties with Western Europe and the United States, particularly in the areas of economics and defense. Some of the members of the CIS have established the Eurasian Economic Community with the aim of creating a full-fledged free trade zone or economic union between the participating states. However, other member states have shown greater interest in seeking to join the European Union. Similarly, some member states have established the Collective Security Treaty Organization to co-operate on defense and security issues, while other members are seeking full membership of NATO. This disagreement has hindered the development of the CIS.
The CIS is headquartered in Minsk, Belarus. The chairman of the CIS is known as the Executive Secretary. All of the CIS's executive secretaries have been from Belarus or Russia. Sergei Lebedev is the current executive secretary, and has been since October 2007.
