Annual Informal CIS Leaders Meeting

Konstantinovsky Palace venue.

At the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve.

The Amber Room at the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve.

The CIS Heads of State took a tour of the museum prior to sitting down at the smaller palace for their meeting. Properly touring St. Petersburg would take at least ten days if not more. Its grandeur could easily be intimidating. It’s good to see all the CIS leaders together as the antics of Armenia and Azerbaijan indicated the potential for instability, but as the EAEU meeting yesterday showed, some of that was made as a show to the West. As you read Putin’s short speech and add it to all those that have preceded it, the goal of reknitting the Soviet Union becomes clearer, but in a newer, modernized version where the emphasis is on what CIS stands for—a commonwealth of independent states working together and with the region to grow their common wealth. And the several other organizations also help facilitate that—SCO, EAEU, CSTO. Yes, the Baltics are most certainly lost to their own insecurities, but Georgia will most likely rejoin as it watches its neighbors prosper from their arrangements and joint efforts. Ukraine will return to its natural state—Russia—but with its unnatural lands reverting to their natural state, although that won’t occur formally until 2026 or so. Moldova would benefit from joining CIS far more than EU/NATO, but that’s for its people to decide, not the current Comprador.

By informal, means without staff and all that, to get together and have the sort of year ending conversations that are normative for Russia and its extended culture, and that’s how Putin formulates his short speech which you’ll now read:

Vladimir Putin: Dear colleagues and friends,

Let me get started. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for accepting the invitation and coming to St. Petersburg for an informal meeting of the leaders of the CIS member states. We always meet at the end of the year in such a close circle, and this is already a well-established, good tradition.

Such meetings provide a very good opportunity to take stock of the activities of the Commonwealth of Independent States, discuss future plans and, of course, discuss issues on the international agenda that concern us. I noticed that even during these historical excursions, each of you, including myself, talked in detail about current issues of bilateral and multilateral formats and exchanged views on international affairs, moving from hall to hall. So in general, we can say that we communicate with each other during the day, and we communicate very productively.

It is no exaggeration to say that the outgoing year was exceptionally active and eventful for the CIS, filled with major events and bright initiatives. This is largely due to our Kyrgyz friends, and in this regard, I would like to thank Sadyr Zhaparov for the great work done during Kyrgyzstan's presidency in our organization.

Starting from the new year, the CIS presidency will pass to Russia. As I said at the Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Bishkek, we plan to continue our multifaceted integration activities in the spirit of continuity. Russia has already presented the concept of its presidency and the action plan for its implementation, which includes about 150 points. At the same time, we are ready to take into account additional ideas and considerations of all our Commonwealth partners.

Naturally, we will pay close attention to further strengthening economic cooperation within the CIS. In the past year, the trade turnover between our countries has shown steady growth. According to data for 10 months, it increased by two percent compared to the same period last year and amounted to $ 83.7 billion.

In June, the CIS member states signed an agreement on free trade in services and investment. We intend to continue to take steps to harmonize the regulatory framework of the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Union, as we discussed with our colleagues at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Council yesterday.

We will continue to work with our commonwealth partners in favor of a more active transition to national currencies in mutual settlements. We are convinced that this will make it possible to better ensure the economic and financial sovereignty of our States. In a constructive manner, we will try to build joint work on maintaining security and stability in our common Eurasian region, combating terrorism and extremism, cross-border crime, drug trafficking and corruption.

Another important area, an important component of partnership within the CIS, is seen in cultural and humanitarian cooperation, which is based on a centuries-old common history, a deep interweaving of cultures. It is no coincidence that today we walked through the historical part of our once united state. I know that the President of Kazakhstan has specially prepared information on this issue, and then we will talk about it behind closed doors, and we will definitely listen to our colleague.

The closest cooperation of the Commonwealth members is still in demand, especially in the fight against attempts to falsify history and glorify Nazism. Therefore, in our opinion, we should continue to hold such iconic actions in memory of those who fell during the Great Patriotic War as "Immortal Regiment"," St. George's Ribbon", as well as"Train of Memory". And we will discuss the historical context of relations between our countries and peoples in more detail later in the course of further communication in an informal setting.

It is important that on October 13, at the Bishkek summit, an agreement on the establishment of an international organization for the Russian language was signed at the initiative of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. This organization, headquartered in Sochi, is designed to support and promote the Russian language not only in the CIS, but also beyond its borders. During the preparation of this document, this treaty, everyone recognized that the Russian language is the most important consolidating element of the post-Soviet space, the key to mutual understanding and free communication for hundreds of millions of residents of the CIS countries.

As for humanitarian cooperation in general, it is developing steadily and very successfully. As you know, in 2023 St. Petersburg was the cultural capital of the Commonwealth, and next year, in accordance with our decision, the baton will pass to ancient Samarkand.

I would also like to recall the ideas put forward by Russia for the creation of the Eurasian Academy of Film Arts and the establishment of the Eurasian Film Award, as well as the revival of the international popular song contest Intervision. We look forward to your positive response and invite all CIS countries to take part in the implementation of these projects. I am sure that it will be interesting, informative, and useful for the peoples of all our countries.

Physical culture and sports are also an integral component of humanitarian cooperation. I would like to thank our Belarusian colleagues for the successful organization and holding of the Second Commonwealth Games in Belarus in August. Next February, we will host innovative "Games of the Future"in Kazan. This is a new format of sports events proposed by Russia, combining the most dynamic sports disciplines and esports. I would like to invite all of you as guests of honor to the opening ceremony of the Games of the Future on February 21, 2024 in Kazan.

Another major international event will be the World Youth Festival in Sochi from March 1-7, 2024. We expect that young people from more than 180 countries of the world, including the countries of our Commonwealth, will come to it.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize once again that the priority task of the Russian presidency is to preserve and strengthen close ties between our peoples, to develop friendly and good-neighborly relations throughout the CIS. And in this context, we are determined to work together as closely as possible.

And of course, I would like to cordially congratulate all of you on the upcoming New Year, and sincerely wish you, your family and friends, and all citizens living in the CIS, good health, happiness, well-being, peace and prosperity.

Thank you for your attention.

The new year will see Russia heading BRICS+ and CIS. Later in 2024 new nations will join SCO and BRICS+ further enlarging and extending the dynamism of those organizations and associations. It would be excellent if the entire ASEAN were to join SCO and/or BRICS+ as a group instead of individual nations. The global problem is located in Palestine and Washington DC, and it will take the effort of all willing nations working together to force a solution in Palestine that will lead to the liberation of the entire Persian Gulf Region from its occupation by the Outlaw US Empire. 2024 will also see a historic number of national elections that will likely change the overall Big Picture political dynamic somewhat. As Lavrov said today, “The world is becoming more diverse. It has more independent players. But that also makes it more complicated.” But that’s the way it was envisioned by those who wrote the UN Charter and compiled the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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