MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia takes over the presidency of the Commonwealth of Independent States on January 1, 2017.
"I would like to announce that the decision was made that on January 1, in accordance with documents, the presidency in the Commonwealth of Independent States will be transferred to the Russian Federation," Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said during a CIS summit in September.
According to CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev, the next CIS summit will take place on October 11, 2017, in Moscow.
The CIS is a regional organization formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union. It includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Georgia left the CIS in 2008. Ukraine and Turkmenistan are associate members of the organization.
