The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (Russian: Содружество Независимых Государств, СНГ, (transliterated Sodruzhestvo Nezavisimykh Gosudarstv, SNG)) is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics.
The CIS is comparable to a confederation similar to the original European Community. Although the CIS has few supranational powers, it is more than a purely symbolic organization, possessing coordinating powers in the realm of trade, finance, lawmaking, and security. It has also promoted cooperation on democratization and cross-border crime prevention. As a regional organization, CIS participates in UN peacekeeping forces.[3] Some of the members of the CIS have established the Eurasian Economic Community with the aim of creating a full-fledged common market.
Membership status of CIS countries :
The Creation Agreement remained the main constituent document of the CIS until January 1993, when the CIS Charter (Russian: Устав, Ustav) was adopted.[11] The charter formalized the concept of membership: a member country is defined as a country that ratifies the CIS Charter (sec. 2, art. 7). Turkmenistan has not ratified the charter and changed its CIS standing to associate member as of 26 August 2005 in order to be consistent with its UN-recognized international neutrality status.[12][13] Although Ukraine was one of the three founding countries and ratified the Creation Agreement in December 1991, Ukraine did not to ratify the CIS Charter and is not a member of the CIS.
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Moldova
Russia
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan - unofficial associate member
Ukraine - de facto participating; officially not a member
Uzbekistan