Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili during a joint press conference with the heads of Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, August 13, 2008
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
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Georgia Can’t Get Out of CIS for a Year
The Georgian parliament yesterday voted unanimously in favor of President Mikheil Saakashvili’s initiative to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States. Leaving the CIS is not easy, however, under the conditions set out in the organization’s charter. A withdrawal announcement has to be considered for 12 months. Nonetheless, Vadim Gustov, chairman of the Russian Federation Council Committee on CIS Affairs, thinks that Georgia’s request to withdraw will eventually be approved.
According to Gustov, Georgia will lose economically from its withdrawal from the CIS, whereas the organization will be little affected. Visa procedures and agreements on workforce migration are regulated by the CIS. “Will Georgia’s economy really adapt to the West?” Gustov asked rhetorically. “Borzhomi [mineral water] and wine can only find demand on our markets.”
Georgia was one of the few republics of the former USSR that did not participate in the foundation of the CIS in 1991. It entered the organization later, under president Eduard Shevardnadze. Saakashvili began to talk about exiting the CIS as soon as he came to power. Nonetheless, he regularly attended the organization’s summits and held meetings with the other CIS leaders, while delaying a final decision on ending his country’s membership.
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