Russia's chairmanship of the Commonwealth of Independent States in 2024: key achievements, plans and prospects

Abstract

The article describes the priorities of Russian Federation’s chairmanship of the Commonwealth of Independent States in 2024. The relevance of the chosen topic is determined by Russia's clear intention over the past few years to intensify its policy in the Commonwealth, among other things, in order to stop «unfriendly actions of foreign states» provoking «disintegration processes in neighboring countries». The main substantive aspect of the article was the analysis of primary source documentation related to the activities of the CIS as an international organization. Special attention is paid to the study of planned activities aimed at implementing the operational concept of Russia's chairmanship of the CIS, the Greater European Partnership Initiative realization and expected progress in various fi elds (in terms of how Russia contextualize it). It is noted that Russia's chairmanship of the CIS will be used by the country, fi rst of all, to deepen the integration in the economic sphere, and also for the development of humanitarian contacts with the Commonwealth countries. The author highlighted the main areas («politics», «economics and fi nance», «energy and transport», «environmental issues», «IT sector», «law enforcement, security, and defense», «science, education, and culture»), in which Russia intends to act as a leader of the Commonwealth, offering its own agenda for multilateral negotiations and the ways of further integration. This article, in addition to the achievements, plans and prospects of the Commonwealth development, addresses some problems that the organization faces nowadays. Given the results of the study, the author makes reasonable forecasts for achieving tangible results of Russia’s chairmanship of the CIS in 2024.