Helsinki Monitor 1994/4 [antikvár]

Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States: The Role of the CSCE Michael R. Lucas Introduction Developments in Russia and other republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in 1993-94 have disabused the world of the illusion that Boris Yeltsin, after triumphantly slaying the Soviet imperial dragon could trium-phantly sweep Russia and the other new independent republics into the promised land of the international community on the waves of shock therapy, democracy, and humán rights. Despite the epic advances in Russian reform since 1989, the world has had to accept that Russia is faced with increasing problems at home and is re-asserting what it sees as its national and régiónál great-power interests and responsibilities. As a result, the West faces a major policy dilemma: on the one hand, it cannot abandon or even politely ignore Russia in its moment of need without risking that Russia and the CIS region will slide into instability that could rapidly spread in all directions. On the other hand, the West cannot give Moscow unconditioned support in its current neo-imperial drive for stability and order without risking that Russia's prog-ress toward democracy and rule or law, so painfully achieved since the birth of glasnost and perestroika, would be seriously if not fatally put at risk. The purpose of this article is to address this security dilemma facing Russia, the CIS, and the West and the role of the CSCE as one of main arenas in which their efforts to cooperatively promote peace and the reform process throughout the CIS region are being played out. I The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) The CIS was originally set up by Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine in early December, 1991, and was shortly thereafter expanded to include 11, and later 12, of the 15 republics of the former Soviet Union. According to the Minsk Agreement, signed by the three Slav heads of state, the CIS is a voluntary association of 12 states of the former Soviet Union.1 In the Alma-Ata Declar-ation, signed by 11 former Soviet republics, the signatory states agreed to