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Ukraine’s parliament registers bill on suspending agreement on CIS

Kiev unveiled plans to withdraw from the CIS, a loose alliance of former Soviet states, in March

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Ukraine’s withdrawal from CIS unadvisable — lawmaker

KIEV, October 13. /TASS/. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has registered a bill suspending the agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The bill has been initiated by the lawmakers of the Svoboda party, the official website says. The text of the bill has not been yet published.

Kiev unveiled plans to withdraw from the CIS, a loose alliance of former Soviet states, in March. Since then, no instructions have been made to launch the procedure.

Moreover, the Ministry of Economy recently concluded that withdrawing from the CIS is unadvisable in regard to Ukraine’s economic interests as the CIS comprises not only Russia.

At last week’s summit of CIS leaders, Ukraine was represented by the country’s ambassador to Belarus, Mykhailo Yezhel.

In a phone conversation with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, President Petro Poroshenko apologized for not being able to attend the summit and asked him to notify the CIS heads of states about Ukraine’s stance on the developments in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov on Friday criticized the decision by his Ukrainian counterpart not to come to Minsk, saying that it “can hardly be welcomed.”

The agreement to establish the CIS was signed by Russia, Belarus and Ukraine on December 8, 1991. At the moment, the CIS unites Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Belarus took over the CIS presidency this year when Ukraine last spring refused to perform the functions of the CIS president.

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Ukraine crisis Ukraine Verkhovna Rada

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