Obituary for a Birthday?

If this is not an expressed in diplomatic language epitaph to the strange creature which is now seven years old, then it is an obituary. Seven years in the so-called Commonwealth allowed us not to forget the fact that we used to be a united country not long ago. For the presidents of the fragments of the former USSR, CIS summits have become something in between Politburo sessions in the USSR's final days, where there were not even common interests, and a school reunion: they came, saw each other, and walked away. For functionaries it is a chance to get an easy and well-paid job with opportunities to establish business contacts. For Communists - a substitute for paradise lost. And for the population of the twelve countries the Commonwealth with each passing day becomes simply more and more empty words. Especially for Tajikistan which is in war now, for Armenia and Azerbaijan where the war is now in a cold phase, for Georgia and Moldova with unconquered separatism. As a matter of fact, there is nothing to feel sorry about. Thus, there need be no surprise that not a single word is spoken about some priorities or the strategic importance of the country's participation in the CIS in the draft of the Ukrainian government program. The various CIS meetings, forums, and summits have long commanded only scarce coverage in the Ukrainian press.

Except that Berezovsky still travels actively and interacts with the presidents, submitting his projects for their consideration. In particular, Kuchma "approved in general" his ideas. However, it can be seen that he is interested first and foremost in the possibilities for privatization in the post-Soviet geographical theater.

It is already clear that somebody is more interested in the Russia-Belarus union with its Great Russian rhetoric and vague future; somebody like Ukraine is interested in the Georgia-Ukraine-Azerbaijan-Moldova understanding with a palpable aroma of oil, while others are closer to the Asian tea-house.

It is clear that it was not even Kyiv that torpedoed with the perfidious West's help Russia's attempts to revive a multilingual empire, now significantly narrowed. As this is written not only in the Communists press: it did not and could not have happened.

It is clear the Ukraine's striving toward Europe already little depends personally on President Kuchma and Foreign Minister Tarasiuk considered Ukraine's main Eurocentrists. Russia has shown several times in recent why it is not worth establishing a united country centered in Moscow.

It seems that we are beginning to understand where to go. It also seems that there will be no funeral of the Commonwealth of the Independent States because it in fact was never born.