Georgia quits CIS

President Saakashvili announced about Georgia’s intention to withdraw from CIS on August 12, 2008 saying Tbilisi had decided “to say farewell to the Soviet Union.”

Davit Jalagonia, Georgian deputy foreign minister, said on August 17 that despite withdrawal from the organization Georgia still remained part of 75 multilateral agreements, which were in force between the CIS member states, including on visa-free movement and free trade.

Georgia was the latest country to join CIS in December, 1993 and the first one to officially quit the organization in which 11 former Soviet states remain now.

/The Georgian Times/