CIS leaders meet amid energy dispute

Leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are discussing the future of a post-Soviet grouping torn by disputes and stung by energy ultimatums from Russia.

Western-leaning Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova are unsure they have a future in an organisation dominated by Moscow.

They are more interested in membership of NATO, which was holding its own summit in nearby ex-Soviet Latvia.
But some members loyal to Moscow are now having doubts, too, after Russia threatened a sharp rise in the price they pay for their natural gas imports.

The Minsk meeting is focused on attempts to make the CIS, created in 1991 to cushion the collapse of the Soviet Union, a practical tool for cooperation between its members.

Questions over the organisation’s future and disputes between Russia and other members will be hanging in the air at the three-hour summit hosted by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, described by Washington as Europe’s last dictator.

The Age