The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS; Russian: Содружество Независимых Государств, СНГ), sometimes also called the Russian Commonwealth, is the loose association of former Soviet Republics, set up during the breakup of the Soviet Union. The organization was founded on 8 December 1991 by the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. The creation of CIS was the attempt to form a successor entity to the Soviet Union, which was in the process of disintegrating.



The founding members announced that the new alliance would be open to all former republics of the Soviet Union, and to other nations sharing the same goals. On 21 December 1991, eight additional former Soviet Republics – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, joined the CIS.