Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a union of former Soviet countries, who are visiting Moscow to attend a summit on the 7th (local time), his 72nd birthday, according to Russia's Sputnik news agency.
According to the report, President Putin will hold a meeting with the CIS leaders on the day and conduct several working sessions. The CIS was established on December 8, 1991, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, the core republics of the Soviet Union, signed an agreement. Ukraine, a founding member of the CIS, effectively withdrew in 2018 after conflicts following Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
Amid the war in Ukraine and confrontation with the West, President Putin is advocating for strengthening cooperation with the CIS as well as promoting a shift to a multipolar world order through regional security organizations led by Russia and China, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
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