MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. Moscow does not seek to impose its ideas on other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and no member is forced to do anything, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said.

"The beautiful thing about the Commonwealth of Independent States is that no one forces anyone to do anything. That’s one thing. Everything is done based on mutual interests. Russia is neither a dictator nor a promoter of some ideas that it seeks to impose on others," he pointed out at a hearing of the lower house State Duma on the implementation of the Concept for Russia’s CIS Chairmanship in 2024.

"Of course, there is multipolarity in other organizations, too, and the CIS does not have a monopoly on friendship and cooperation; the member states aren’t supposed to fixate on this organization. Clearly, our CIS partners are also members of other groups," the diplomat added.