Commonwealth of Independent States

Flag of CIS

For the conservative immigration think tank, see Center for Immigration Studies

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is an alliance among 11 former Soviet Republics: Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania did not join (see Baltic states).

Turkmenistan was a member of the CIS but left as a permanent member in 2005, and now is only an associate member.