Does the Fate of the Soviet Union Await the Commonwealth of Independent States?

History's nasty habit of repeating past tragedies in the form of a modernized farce threatens to confirm itself in the destiny of the Commonwealth of Independence States (CIS). This knowingly shaky and hurriedly tailored formation appeared on the ruins of the old Soviet Union in December of 1991 due to the efforts of three leaders of former Soviet republics--the presidenta of Russia and Ukraine, and the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus. Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislav Shushkevich were eager to rid themselves, as soon as possible, of the center's guardianship which was embodied in Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and in Moscow's power structures. Their feeling was so burning and unanimous, that these three extremely different and contradictory politicians decided to undertake joint action; and at first, they even demonstrated a great deal of mutual understanding and cooperation. Alas, the events of recent months have shown that their dislike for Gorbachev and the Soviet Union had been the strongest, if not the only, unifying factor in the behavior of these key CIS figures. Their positions on nearly all problems of the Commonwealth are drifting farther and farther apart, exposing the yawning abyss among these former Soviet republics. The fact of the matter is that their opposition to Gorbachev was the catalyst which made them become the founding fathers of the CIS. Their goal was opposition to the center. As soon as they (the three members of the former Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee) got rid of their former General Secretary's guardianship (who had put all three on the front stage of the Union's political life), their inveterate mistrust, new ambitions and grievances began to distance them farther away from each other.