Informally

CIS leaders will go to the races and discuss the future of the post-Soviet space

A two-day informal CIS summit opens today in Moscow. Yesterday, the presidents of ten of the twelve invited states confirmed their participation in it. The head of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, decided not to interrupt his vacation and have a good rest on the coast of the Caspian Sea. There have been conflicting reports regarding Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's plans. He expressed his readiness to take part in the summit, but the final decision depends on the difficult internal political situation in the country.

The informal status of the summit does not imply the signing of comprehensive documents. Moreover, the meeting itself is expected to not be very long, and the key event will be a visit by the heads of state to the Moscow Hippodrome - horse racing for the Russian Presidential Prize will be held there.

However, at meetings outside the racecourse, leaders of the Commonwealth countries will be offered an equally interesting topic for discussion. According to the head of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, Kasymzhomart Tokayev, President Nursultan Nazarbayev “prepared a program document on reforming the CIS for the Moscow summit.” Assistant to the Russian President Sergei Prikhodko also believes that “in an informal setting, without a clearly approved agenda, we can talk about ways to reform the CIS.”

Minsk is optimistic about the prospects for the CIS. Press Secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Andrei Popov emphasized on the eve of the Moscow summit that, according to Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, “the Commonwealth has a future, and now it is necessary to determine once again the areas in which we will cooperate.” President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmonov is also confident that “it is too early to write off the CIS.”

One of the intrigues of the summit is the arrival of the Georgian president in Moscow. As you know, Tbilisi has made a number of sharp steps towards Moscow in recent days. The Georgian government decided to withdraw its signature from the bilateral protocol on Russia’s accession to the WTO (and announced this on the eve of the G8 summit in St. Petersburg), and the parliament decided to quickly expel Russian peacekeepers from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. And Mikheil Saakashvili, apparently, would like to discuss the state of bilateral relations with Vladimir Putin. But there was no official confirmation of such a meeting yesterday. At the beginning of the week, Sergei Prikhodko told reporters that “there is such a request (from Tbilisi for a meeting of presidents - Ed. ),” and “we always treat Mr. Saakashvili’s requests with increased attention.” At the same time, the assistant to the Russian president emphasized that “the meaning of the negotiations should not come down to creating some kind of smokescreen, but to real results in the activities of states and political figures, to their understanding of full responsibility for what they say.” Since the Kremlin often expresses doubts that the Georgian leader possesses these qualities, Vladimir Putin may well limit himself to a conversation with his Georgian colleague somewhere at the hippodrome. Moreover, the WTO problem is “not on the table” for Moscow now (negotiations with a more serious partner - the United States - will be completed in October at the earliest), and the accelerated withdrawal of peacekeepers is largely a problem for Mr. Saakashvili himself.

Petr ISKENDEROV