CHISINAU, January 21. /TASS/. Moldova has announced plans to leave the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) though it wants to continue to benefit from economic agreements concluded within the union, Director of the Mediator Political Research Bureau Sergey Shirokov said.
"The Republic of Moldova will try to sit on two chairs at once. On the one hand, it is severing political ties within the CIS. On the other hand, there have already been corresponding declarations from the Moldovan side. They will try to maintain their participation in economic agreements," the expert said on the air of TV channel TSV. He recalled that Georgia left the CIS in 2009, but it is successfully expanding ties with Russia and other republics of the Commonwealth.
"Having officially left the CIS and severed all relations, Georgia remained within this economic and customs union, maintaining agreements on transport, logistics, standardization, protection of geographical names, and intellectual property. It appears Moldova will attempt to follow a similar path," Shirokov said. Chisinau is gradually breaking ties with the CIS, trying to maintain agreements that are beneficial to itself, he added.