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Putin tells leaders of ex-Soviet bloc to preserve unity

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  • Putin tells leaders of ex-Soviet bloc to preserve unity

    Putin tells leaders of ex-Soviet bloc to preserve unity
    HENRY MEYER

    AP Worldstream
    May 08, 2005

    Russian President Vladimir Putin told leaders of the troubled
    Commonwealth of Independent States on Sunday that their grouping of
    ex-Soviet republics remained relevant today and urged them to defend
    its existence.

    At a summit held the day before commemorations of the 60th anniversary
    of the defeat of Nazi Germany, Putin said the body that groups 12
    out of the 15 former Soviet republics had a key role in combatting
    the spread of terrorism, extremism and xenophobia and fostering peace.

    "For all of us it is obvious that Nazism, extremism and terrorism are
    threats feeding on a single ideological source, a terrible threat,
    against which we are obliged to defend our unique and peaceful
    commonwealth," Putin said.

    "The new generation of our citizens should know the truth about the
    events of those days. To know that truth means having an internal
    immunity to the propaganda of extremism and xenophobia, national and
    religious incitement. In the final analysis, it means to protect
    the world from a repeat of conflicts and wars based on genocide,
    national and racial superiority.

    "I'm convinced that the CIS is capable of becoming an effective
    instrument of such ... work," he said.

    The meeting convened amid growing questions about the viability of
    the CIS, which brings reformist leaders cheek to cheek with entrenched
    Soviet-era autocrats following the popular uprisings against regimes
    in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

    Putin himself in March questioned the body's usefulness, saying it
    had been created for a "civilized divorce" unlike the European Union,
    which worked to pull its members closer together.

    But on Sunday he said that six decades after the end of what Russia
    terms the Great Patriotic War, the fraternity the peoples of the
    Soviet Union felt as they fought in World War II was still palpable
    today. Maintaining "historical unity" was a good basis for stable
    development of the countries, he said.

    In a reflection of the disputes between the member-countries, two of
    the leaders, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Azerbaijani
    President Ilham Aliev, were not attending.

    Saakashvili was staying away from Sunday's meeting, as well as Monday's
    Victory in Europe Day celebration in Moscow, because Georgia failed
    to win agreement last week on the withdrawal of Russian bases it
    regards as a legacy of Moscow's imperial domination.

    Aliev was boycotting because of the attendance of Armenian President
    Robert Kocharian, and because Sunday is a day of mourning, marking
    a key battle during the six-year war between Armenia and Azerbaijan
    over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The CIS was born in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, and its
    advocates hoped it would foster closer integration between the newly
    independent countries. However, many of its initiatives have foundered
    _ including the plans to remove trade barriers that have dominated
    the CIS agenda since its creation _ and it has long been criticized
    for being little more than a talking shop.

    The group's attempts to prove otherwise have often only fostered more
    discord. Its peacekeepers have been accused of destabilizing conflict
    zones in the former Soviet Union, and its election monitors _ deployed
    to provide a counterbalance to Western-dominated observer missions
    from such groups as the Council of Europe and the Organization for
    Security and Cooperation in Europe _ have consistently given high
    marks to blatantly fraudulent ballots.

    Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, where the Communist government is also
    looking West, are aiming for membership in the EU and NATO,and they
    have forged close ties within a rival organization, GUUAM, as they
    seek to throw off Moscow's influence.

    Uzbekistan's authoritarian President Islam Karimov quit the five-nation
    body this week in protest at its pro-Western tilt.
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