KIEV, March 24. /ITAR-TASS/. A draft bill on Ukraine's withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, a spokesperson for Ukraine's parliament told Itar-Tass.

MP Boris Tarasyuk from the Batkivshchyna faction is the author of the draft bill "On withdrawal of Ukraine's membership and participation from the Commonwealth of Independent States."

 

Ukraine suspends presidency in CIS

On March 20, Ukraine has filed a note to the CIS Executive Committee to suspend the country’s presidency in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the CIS Ivan Bunechko told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

Bunechko also noted that no instructions had been made to launch the procedure of Ukraine’s withdrawal from the CIS.

“Ukraine decided not to continue the country’s CIS presidency,” director of the information policy department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Yevgen Perebyinis told a media briefing on March 19. “Ukraine retains the right to consider whether it is expedient for the country to continue its participation in CIS activities,” Perebyinis added. Kiev decided “not only to terminate the country’s CIS presidency, but also launch the process of withdrawal from the CIS,” Acting Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Andriy Parubiy said on the same day. “The decision was taken at a meeting of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council,” Parubiy said.

CIS presidency may be passed to Belarus as a country that presided in 2013 or Kazakhstan which is to take over CIS presidency in 2015.