Putin Comments on CIS

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 13 that the countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) need assistance to develop ?democracy and economy,? RIA Novosti news agency reported. Putin was speaking at a news conference after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Moscow on Monday.

?We should not turn this [CIS] space into battlefield and [a field] for competition. We should turn it into a field of cooperation and we should do everything possible to help these countries [of the CIS] to develop democracy and economy,? Putin said.

He said that Russia has uneasy relations with some of the CIS countries. ?But all of them need support from the international community,? Putin said, adding that Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Moldova are among those CIS countries which especially need this assistance.

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