MINSK, April 12. /TASS/. The formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) allowed its member states to preserve good relations post-USSR and appreciate each other even more, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following a meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers in Minsk.

"If we consider this image, it often happens in everyday life that when people separate, they begin to feel the value of mutual ties and realize the need for mutual support, perhaps more acutely than within marriage. And it seems to me that here we see something similar," the Russian minister said when asked to characterize the CIS, which politicians recently called "a circle for civilized divorce."

"All CIS countries have spoken about the importance of this unification, which emphasizes the new nature, new level, new qualities of our relations not within a single state, but within the Commonwealth," Lavrov added. "This word is not an empty sound, it truly reflects the essence of our association," he concluded.