ABSTRACT
Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on December 8, 1991, in Minsk, Belarus. During 1993, a deeper process of a differentiation within the commonwealth was revealed. A thorough analysis of the pattern of signing CIS documents by various states disclosed a range of different approaches to that of the commonwealth. A CIS Coordinating and Consultative Committee was established, consisting of special representatives of member states. The CIS "working group" in Minsk was finally transformed into a proper secretariat. Another important development within the CIS is the process of bilateralization of relations among member states. An important feature of the process of bilateralization of relations among the CIS states is that the ties that are expanding between Russia and the other new states are mostly vertical. The prospects for further strengthening of the Commonwealth of Independent States, especially in the long run, are uncertain, and thus the CIS retains its current ambiguous status.
