Draft resolution on withdrawal from the CIS registered in Moldovan Parliament
Deputies of the Liberal Party of Moldova headed by Mihai Ghimpu registered in the local parliament a draft resolution on the withdrawal of Moldova from the Commonwealth of Independent States or CIS.
According to the Moldovan news website NewsMaker, the authors explained that this initiative was triggered by repeated violations of the agreement by the Russian Federation. The liberals believe that this was evident in supporting the separatist regime in Transnistria, in military aggression against the Republic of Moldova in 1992, and in the occupation and annexation of part of the Ukrainian territory.
The explanatory note to the draft bill says, "Membership in the CIS has not brought any benefit to Moldova. All decisions in this organization are taken exclusively in the interests of Russia."
The document says, "We consider it necessary to denounce the Agreement on the establishment of the CIS because the Russian Federation does not comply with the provisions of the Agreement on the creation of the CIS."
Igor Dodon, a pro-Russian President of Moldova, has already called this initiative a "risky project" and expressed confidence that it would never come to fruition. The head of the country said, "Assume that the majority will vote for this resolution; this is not a bill that I can block twice but the exit procedure lasts 12 months, so before the elections we won’t have time to leave the CIS, and after the elections it won’t pass.”
Georgia left the CIS in 2009 after the Russian aggression. In turn, Ukraine never ratified the CIS Charter of 1993. The countries were formally members in the commonwealth but didn’t pay membership fees and their cooperation within the CIS was reduced to a minimum.