An informal Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit opened on Saturday at the Russian president's Gorki residence just outside Moscow.
The summit follows an informal summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet security bloc.
A Kremlin source said the summit did not have a fixed agenda and that the CIS leaders would use it to exchange opinions on the status and prospects for cooperation within the CIS.
The summit is attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Moldova's acting president Mihai Ghimpu, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirzieyev and CIS Executive Committee Chairman Sergei Lebedev.
The CIS presidents are expected to deliver an address to World War II veterans and workers of the home front.
The former Soviet states of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine are members of the CIS. Georgia pulled out of the organization in 2009.
GORKI (Moscow Region), May 8 (RIA Novosti)
