The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was established on December 8, 1991 by the leaders of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. On December 21, 1991, in Almaty, the heads of 11 sovereign nations (except the Baltic States and Georgia, which joined the CIS in 1993) signed the Protocol, in accordance with which the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan, and Ukraine established the Commonwealth of Independent States.
On August 18, 2009, Georgia withdrew from the CIS.
In accordance with the CIS Charter, the Commonwealth has the following goals:
- promoting political, economic, environmental, humanitarian, cultural, and other forms of cooperation;
- fostering the comprehensive and sustainable economic and social development of member-states within a common economic space; interstate cooperation and integration;
- ensuring basic human rights and freedoms in compliance with universally recognized principles and norms of international law and OSCE documents;
- facilitating cooperation among member-states to ensure world peace and security; implementing effective measures towards the reduction of arms and military expenditures; the elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction; working to secure complete, multilateral disarmament;
- facilitating freedom of communication, contact, and movement within the CIS for the citizens of member states;
- providing mutual legal assistance and cooperation in other spheres of legal relations;
- overseeing the peaceful resolution of disputes and conflicts among the states of the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth's activities are regulated through its charter bodies: the Council of the Heads of State, the Council of the Heads of Government, the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Economic Council, the Council of Defense Ministers, the Council of Border Troop Commanders, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, and the Economic Court.
The Council of the Heads of State (CHS) is the supreme governing body of the Commonwealth. In accordance with the CIS CHS decision of October 10, 2008, the Republic of Moldova holds the CIS chairmanship throughout 2009. The Russian Federation and the Kyrgyz Republic hold the CIS co-chairmanship.
The CIS Council of the Heads of Government (CHG) coordinates cooperation between the executive bodies on economic, social, and other spheres of mutual interest.
The CIS Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) is the main executive body responsible for the member-states' cooperation on foreign policy issues of mutual interest during the period in between the meetings of the CIS Heads of State and Heads of Government Councils.
The CIS Economic Council is the main executive body responsible for the execution of agreements adopted in the CIS framework, CIS Heads of State and Heads of Government Councils resolutions on the establishment and operation of the free trade zone, and on other issues of social and economic cooperation.
The permanent Commission on Economic Issues under the Economic Council comprises plenipotentiary representatives of the member states and ensures the comprehensive analysis and consideration of draft documents prepared by the CIS Executive Committee and sectoral bodies on social and economic issues, and also helps the member states coordinate their positions.
The CIS Council of Defense Ministers (CDM) is a body under the Council of the Heads of State responsible for member-states' military policy and issues of military organisation. The CDM is composed of Defense Ministers from the CIS member-states (except Moldova, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine).
The CIS Council of Border Troops Commanders (CBTC) is a body under the Council of the Heads of State responsible for coordinating border protection for the CIS and ensuring the frontier regions' stability.
The CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly holds inter-parliamentary consultations, discusses cooperation issues within the CIS, and develops joint proposals within the competence of national parliaments.
The CIS Economic Court is responsible for ensuring the fulfillment of obligations deriving from the economic agreements, concluded by the CIS member states, and the settlement of disputes arising in the process of economic relations.
In addition to the aforementioned bodies, the CIS has established more than 80 bodies of sectoral economic cooperation.
The CIS Executive Committee is the single permanent executive, administrative, and coordinating body of the Commonwealth with headquarters in Minsk and an office in Moscow.
Sergei Lebedev has been the CIS Executive Committee's Chairman/CIS Executive Secretary since October 2007.
The CIS Executive Committee representatives take part in the most important meetings and forums under the auspices of the United Nations, European Union, OSCE, UNECE, ESCAP, ASEAN, UNESCO, FAO, OAS, UNHCR, and other international organisations.
In March 1994, the United Nations General Assembly granted the CIS observer status, an important milestone in the organisation's history. The CIS was granted a similar status by UNCTAD on April 19, 1994.
In accordance with the executive order issued by the Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev on March 19, 2009, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov was appointed the Russian Federation's national coordinator for CIS affairs.