Putin Reaches 74 as the CIS Hits 35 – or What Little Is Left of It

As Vladimir Putin marks his 74th birthday on Oct. 7, Moscow is preparing for another gathering of the Commonwealth of Independent States – a bloc once meant to preserve Russia’s political gravity across the former Soviet Union, but which now offers a much clearer measure of how far that influence has receded. The CIS Council of Heads of State is due to meet in Awaza, Turkmenistan, on Oct. 9, two days after a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers. The summit comes as the organization marks its 35th anniversary.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. From 12 states to a shrinking post-Soviet club The CIS was created on Dec. 8, 1991, by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to manage the Soviet collapse while preserving ties among the former republics. It eventually encompassed 12 former Soviet states after Georgia joined in 1993. But that structure has steadily hollowed out. Georgia withdrew from the CIS in 2009, following Russia’s 2008 war against the country. Ukraine was one of the organization’s founders, but after Russia’s aggression began in 2014, Kyiv progressively dismantled its participation. Moldova became the latest state to make the break. Its parliament completed the process of leaving the CIS in April 2026, formally ending participation in the Moscow-led organization after years of gradual disengagement. What remains is a far smaller political space centered on Russia, Belarus and the Central Asian republics, alongside Armenia and Azerbaijan. Other Topics of Interest Trump to Speak With Putin Over Siberia Plague Scare as US Pressure on Moscow Mounts Washington and the WHO are seeking fuller disclosure after the unexplained death of a worker at a Siberian anti-plague institute. And even within that remaining circle, membership no longer means automatic alignment with Moscow. Armenia provides perhaps the clearest example. The country remains formally tied to several Russia-led structures but has frozen its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization and increasingly developed relations with the EU and the US. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan may well congratulate Putin on his 74th birthday, but Putin notably did not congratulate Pashinyan on his victory in Armenia’s June parliamentary election. Pashinyan later joked about the omission after speaking with Putin by phone. “He didn’t want to, so he didn’t congratulate me. But then the question arises: who was he speaking to?” Central Asia presents a different challenge to Putin. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other states have not broken with Russia. Instead, they have increasingly pursued multi-vector foreign policies, expanding relations with China, the EU, Turkey and the US while maintaining pragmatic ties with Moscow. For Moscow, that is another sign of how much the old model has changed. Membership in a Russia-centered institution no longer guarantees political loyalty to the Kremlin. That is why the symbolism of the Awaza summit may matter almost as much as its final communique, allowing the Kremlin to present the CIS as evidence that Russia still retains regional influence despite its confrontation with Ukraine and the West. The smaller Russia’s circle becomes, the more politically useful the remaining circle is. When the CIS was created 35 years ago, it encompassed nearly the entire former Soviet space. Today, Georgia is gone. Ukraine is gone. Moldova has left. Armenia has distanced itself from Moscow’s security architecture. Central Asian states increasingly diversify their alliances. Thirty-five years later, the remaining capitals of the post-Soviet space are marking a different milestone. As Vladimir Putin prepares to toast the longevity of the CIS, many of Russia’s neighbors are also celebrating 35 years of their own independence – and that means independence from Moscow. Ukraine changed the geopolitical calculus. By surviving Russia’s full-scale invasion and denying Moscow the quick victory it expected, Kyiv shattered the myth of Russian military invincibility. As the wartime joke goes, Russia entered the war boasting of having the “second strongest army in the world” – only to end up fighting to avoid becoming the second strongest army in Russia itself. Sevinj Osmanqizi is an experienced journalist who writes extensively for Kyiv Post on foreign policy, international security and geopolitics. Based in Washington, D.C., her work focuses on Ukraine, Russia’s war and the broader post-Soviet space.