Russia wants puppet regimes to join CIS

CIS executive committee chairman Sergey Lebedev has started serious discussion of the possibility that the puppet regimes of Abkhazian and South Ossetian be considered for official membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia is doing its utmost to arrange that these two puppet entities be recognized at least by someone. Officially to become a CIS member all the participant countries should recognize these proxy regimes and should give their consent to accepting them as members of the CIS. Such a development is very difficult to imagine because one year has passed since recognition of their independent status was made by Moscow, and despite serious pressure from Russia none of the other CIS countries, even those most loyal to Moscow, have agreed to recognize this status. Even Belarus, which Moscow relied on most of all, refused to recognize the independence of these breakaway republics. Moreover it recommended to its citizens that travel in those “republics” may only be undertaken in accordance with Georgian state laws.

Azerbaijani political analysts directly condemned Russia’s claims to include the puppet regimes into the CIS.