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Georgia-Russia row jolts CIS anniversary summit
Leaders of ex-Soviet states converged on Moscow Thursday to mark the 10th anniversary of the largely moribund Commonwealth of Independent States amid a row over Georgian charges that Russia had violated its airspace.
Leaders of ex-Soviet states converged on Moscow Thursday to mark the 10th anniversary of the largely moribund Commonwealth of Independent States amid a row over Georgian charges that Russia had violated its airspace.
The CIS was formed in December 1991 when Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus proclaimed the Soviet Union dead. They hoped the new body would underpin new prosperous states free of communist-era constraints. But in a decade of existence, the CIS has wielded little political clout and is equally ineffective in regulating ex-Soviet republics' joint economic matters. A handful out of hundreds of decisions have been implemented.
Though a separate 1992 defense pact has taken on added significance with the US-led campaign in Afghanistan, the fresh row between Georgia and Russia was one of a periodic series of disputes between members.
With top ministers meeting ahead of Thursday's summit, Georgian Foreign Minister Irakly Menagarishvili told reporters he would raise complaints that Russian aircraft staged a raid in its remote Pankisi gorge Tuesday night. Russia says its aircraft were pursuing Chechen rebels on its own side of the border.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov dismissed the charges, saying helicopters could not fly at night in the gorge, which borders Russia's separatist Chechnya region. The United States, now allied with Russia in the coalition engaged in Afghanistan, has long accused Russia of putting pressure on Georgia. A State Department spokesman on Wednesday pledged to raise the latest Georgian charges with Moscow. Bureau Report
The CIS was formed in December 1991 when Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus proclaimed the Soviet Union dead. They hoped the new body would underpin new prosperous states free of communist-era constraints. But in a decade of existence, the CIS has wielded little political clout and is equally ineffective in regulating ex-Soviet republics' joint economic matters. A handful out of hundreds of decisions have been implemented.
Though a separate 1992 defense pact has taken on added significance with the US-led campaign in Afghanistan, the fresh row between Georgia and Russia was one of a periodic series of disputes between members.
With top ministers meeting ahead of Thursday's summit, Georgian Foreign Minister Irakly Menagarishvili told reporters he would raise complaints that Russian aircraft staged a raid in its remote Pankisi gorge Tuesday night. Russia says its aircraft were pursuing Chechen rebels on its own side of the border.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov dismissed the charges, saying helicopters could not fly at night in the gorge, which borders Russia's separatist Chechnya region. The United States, now allied with Russia in the coalition engaged in Afghanistan, has long accused Russia of putting pressure on Georgia. A State Department spokesman on Wednesday pledged to raise the latest Georgian charges with Moscow. Bureau Report