Moldova takes first step towards complete exit from CIS

Moldovan Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu announced that he is ready to take the first step to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

“As chairman of the parliament, I announce that I have initiated the procedure for Moldova’s withdrawal from the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly,” Grosu said and added that he had already discussed the initiative with citizens, the parliamentary faction of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), as well as with President Maia Sandu, NewsMaker reports on May 15.

Grosu noted that he intends to communicate his initiative to Prime Minister Dorin Recean and prepare a draft law for the next meeting of the Permanent Bureau of Parliament.

“After the founder of the CIS, Russia, barbarously attacked Ukraine, this organization can no longer be called a community. This will be the first step for our country's withdrawal from the CIS, from which Moldova is geographically separated after Ukraine's withdrawal,” the speaker said.

“We are ready to separate ourselves from the source of evil, war and poverty. For 30 years, we have proven that we strive for prosperity and democracy and a better future. The CIS is an organization created by Russia on the ruins of the USSR to keep the former Soviet republics under control. We can no longer sit at the same negotiating table with the aggressor state,” the speaker stressed.

Moldova is still a member of the CIS, but in April the country began the process of denunciation of some treaties within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In February, then-candidate for prime minister, and the current head of the Moldovan government, Dorin Recean, promised to start denouncing the agreements concluded within the framework of the CIS.

In March 2022, after applying to join the EU, President Maia Sandu noted that the country will choose the time to leave the CIS when Moldova has made “sufficient progress on the European path.”