One of the reasons for the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is the Russian leadership’s fetish for the restoration of the former Soviet Union. That’s why the Kremlin’s propaganda continues to push the already tired narrative about “mouse brothers” and “we lived in the same country” in the information space, whether it’s true or not. One of the manipulations behind this message is that Ukraine is allegedly still a member of the CIS – the Commonwealth of Independent States. And that Ukraine still hasn’t left this union. In fact, this is not true and is a manipulation. More on this in the material.
Manipulation
The other day, the spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, in response to a manipulative question from a “journalist” of the Russian TARS agency, stated (hereinafter – in the original language):
“Question: Ukraine is withdrawing from international treaties concluded within the CIS, but de jure remains part of the association, despite statements by Ukrainian politicians that Kyiv left the CIS a long time ago. How many agreements within the CIS remain valid for Kyiv today? For what purpose, in your opinion, do the Ukrainian authorities remain signatories of these documents?
M.V. Zakharova: “According to the CIS Executive Committee, today Ukraine remains a party to more than 200 international treaties concluded within the Commonwealth. These are mainly documents of trade, economic, social and humanitarian nature that are of practical interest to the Kyiv authorities. Among them, for example, is the Free Trade Agreement of October 18, 2011.
At the same time, the Executive Committee received notifications of Kyiv’s withdrawal from 134 agreements. Of course, this is a matter for Ukraine itself, but, as we have repeatedly noted, such steps damage, first of all, the interests of the Ukrainian people, because the CIS is a format focused on the needs of people and encouraging cooperation in vital areas…”
In fact, Ukraine does not need to leave the CIS… because it was never a member of it!
On December 8, 1991, the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, signed the Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, according to which Ukraine became one of the founding states of the CIS. This Agreement was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on December 10, 1991 with reservations. On December 20, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine made a Statement “On Ukraine’s Conclusion of the Agreement on the Commonwealth of Independent States.” According to the last paragraph of this Statement, its provisions are the official interpretation of the above Agreement. On December 21, 1991, Ukraine signed the Protocol to the Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is an integral part of it.
In the specified documents, which are decisive for Ukraine regarding its participation in the CIS, there is no mention of associate membership in this interstate entity. Also, the above-mentioned Agreement and Protocol do not provide for the possibility of associate membership.
On January 22, 1993, the CIS Statute was adopted by the decision of the Council of Heads of State of the CIS. This decision was not signed by Ukraine.
According to the first part of Article 8 of the CIS Charter, “on the basis of a decision of the Council of Heads of State, a state that wishes to participate in certain types of its activities may join the Commonwealth as an associate member under the conditions determined by the agreement on associate membership.” Ukraine did not sign the agreement on associate membership in accordance with the CIS Statute.
Article 7 of the Charter defines that “the founding states of the Commonwealth are the states that signed and ratified the Agreement on the Creation of the CIS and the Protocol thereto. CIS member states are those founding states that undertake obligations under the CIS Statute within one year after its adoption by the Council of Heads of State.
Thus, Ukraine is one of the founding states of the Commonwealth of Independent States, but was not a member state of the CIS as such, as it did not sign the Decision on the Adoption of the Statute of the CIS[ Ukraine ceased its participation in the statutory bodies of the CIS in 2018 due to the long Russian-Ukrainian war, having completely completed withdrawal from the CIS, never being a member of this organization, although it remains a member of the CIS free trade zone. http://surl.li/nnbzak
Yes, Ukraine denounced more than 200 agreements. The denunciation continues. But, according to the former head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine still has to adhere to a number of agreements: “This is due to the fact that in the post-Soviet space, some issues that are really important to Ukrainians are still regulated by the CIS agreements. For example, pension provision, recognition of diplomas, legal aid. That is, all these things are really important for Ukrainians… Completely destroying the very logic of any participation in the CIS, there are certain legal instruments, but they are being revised. And this is actually a large-scale systemic work. All agreements, some legal documents, legal frameworks that have no relation to human stories are really collapsing in the post-Soviet reality. And there is logic and systematicity in this. And the rest – important legal issues for Ukrainians – they still remain. But the time will come when these legal instruments will also “die”, because the need for them will also disappear…” http://surl.li/qlcdsi
CONCLUSIONS
Therefore, both the questions of the “domestic” journalists and the answers of the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry are not manipulation and a desire to make wishful thinking come true, to demonstrate the “importance” of the CIS for Ukraine.
In fact, the farther Ukraine goes, the more it renounces any post-imperial structures, and compliance with certain CIS treaties is a forced and temporary measure.