However, CIS is not what it should be: A free democratic version of the USSR. I mean that it should be something like EU. But as things are with Ukraine and Georgia I don't think CIS will ever work.

“The leaders of former Soviet republics have gathered in Moldova for the CIS Summit on Friday. And though four of them didn’t show up, this is normal, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.” Indeed it is, indeed it is. The CIS was formed by those Soviet “republics” that had not sought independence, did not want it, and had no idea what to do with it when it landed, unasked-for, in their laps. Like a canary that accidentally found itself outside its cage, they quickly flew back home inside again. Over time some of them have got used to the idea that the door is no longer locked, and are increasingly trying to make the middle letter of the CIS mean what it stands for. Moscow continues to show, sometimes quite dramatically, that this is not what it will stand for. Meanwhile, it remains normal for them not to participate in CIS talkfests. Only the Baltics, which comprehensively shunned any notion of CIS membership from the start and which were the only national entities within the USSR that longed for and actively worked towards freedom from Moscow’s control throughout their Soviet experience, have taken themselves outside of Moscow’s orbit. And needless to say, they remain Russia’s very favourites amongst its former Soviet flock.