Parliament Supports Quitting CIS

The Georgian Parliament has made a decision to quit the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) at its session on August 14.

The decision envisages quitting three agreements – 1991 treaty on setting up the Commonwealth of Independent States, the charter approved by decision of the CIS heads of states in January, 1993 and an agreement on economic cooperation of September, 1993.

At a parliamentary session Giorgi Targamadze, the leader of the parliamentary minority slammed some CIS states, “which did not express their position over Russian aggression against Georgia.”

President Saakashvili announced about the decision on quitting the CIS on August 12, saying that the Russian troops will be declared as “occupational forces.”

The Russian troops are stationed in the Abkhaz conflict zone under the CIS aegis. Their presence in the region is also envisaged by the agreement between the heads of Georgia and Russia, which says that the Russian peacekeepers will leave the region if one of the sides officially demands it.