MOSCOW, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- The leaders of 11 former Soviet republics will gather in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau Sunday for a two-day summit that will mark the 10th anniversary of the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The CIS, a loose gathering of nations that grew up in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, has failed to replace its close-knit economic and political structure.
But the various CIS members -- Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan -- still hope to use the summit nonetheless to settle bilateral disputes.
Dampening any festive mood will likely be Russia's dispute with Georgia over Chechen militants hiding in the rugged Pankisi Gorge, but the contentious division of Caspian oil and the implications of a Russia-Belarus union will likely be on the agenda as well.
-- Russian President Vladimir Putin travels to Moldova with the talks with his Georgian counterpart Eduard Shevardnadze on top of his agenda after the two neighboring countries exchanged blows in recent months over Tbilisi's policy on Chechen militants hiding in
Georgia.
The Kremlin charged Georgia with being passive and hesitant to crack down on the rebels who found refuge in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge after fleeing Chechnya.
Moscow was angered by the rebels' frequent incursions back to Russia from the Georgian territory as Georgian border guards did little to prevent the raids.
Until Friday, Tbilisi ignored for months a request filed by Russia's Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov who asked that Georgia hand over to Russia 13 Chechen guerrillas rebels who were captured by Georgian authorities. However, Tbilisi authorities on Friday unexpectedly made a gesture of good will by extraditing in utmost secrecy five of the 13 rebels to Moscow in an apparent attempt to please the Kremlin and play down the conflict that has threatened to seriously undermine bilateral ties.
On the eve of the summit, Shevardnadze told reporters that the task of "overcoming difficulties" in relations with Russia was "more significant than the action demanded by the (Georgian) parliament."
Earlier this year, Georgian legislators unanimously voted to withdraw Georgia from the CIS and to order Russian troops out of the country. The ballot was initiated after Russian warplanes allegedly bombed the Georgian territory, but Shevardnadze subsequently failed to sign the bills into law.
Recently, Putin said that Moscow could launch pre-emptive airstrikes in the Pankisi Gorge if Tbilisi remained idle on the issue. The statement immediately sparked negative reactions in the Georgian legislation, but Shevardnadze again called on the lawmakers to balance their position, hoping that his talks with Putin in Chisinau could straighten out the conflict.
-- Putin's trip to Moldova will be preceded by a short stopover in Ukraine Sunday where he will meet another embattled CIS leader, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.
The Russian leader is expected to throw his support behind Kuchma, who in recent weeks has again been targeted by Ukraine's opposition that seeks to impeach Kuchma for his alleged involvement in the killing of an opposition journalist and reported arms sales to
Iraq.
Kuchma's opponents staged massive rallies urging the president to leave his post while the opposition lawmakers in the parliament, Verkhovnaya Rada, launched a bid to start impeachment proceedings.
Russia regards Kuchma as an ally and would prefer to see him complete his second and last term in office instead of having to deal with a potential pro-Western successor from the opposition camp who would push for Ukraine's entry into NATO and closer ties with the
West.
-- Putin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko are likely to raise the issue of the future of the Russia-Belarus union whose development has been stalled for years and doubted after Lukashenko rejected Putin's proposal in August to hold parliamentary and presidential elections no later than 2004.
The proposal suggested that Belarus subsequently be integrated into Russia on the principles of federalism laid out in the Russian Constitution.
The unclear future of the alliance scared away the supporters of a three-nation union in Moldova who advocated Chisinau's merger with Minsk and Moscow.
"Today we can see that the process (of Russia and Belarus unifying) is getting more complicated, so we are continuing to monitor the situation," Moldovan Foreign Minister Nikolai Dudeu told reporters recently.
-- The Chisinau summit will be ignored by Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov who notified organizers that he would stay in Ashgabat to take part in ceremonies commemorating the victims of a massive 1948 earthquake that killed 120,000 people.
Niyazov's decision to stay at home, however, suggests the authoritarian leader's continuing disappointment with the ex-Soviet forum distancing the Central Asian nation further from its partners.
Turkmenistan remains the only former Soviet state opposing a five-nation deal to divide the mineral-rich Caspian Sea. Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have signed deals to divide their respective portions of the Caspian, while Turkmenistan and Iran shunned the agreements, proposing a division that would assign each country equal, 20-percent portions.
Apart from these and other problems, CIS heads plan to discuss cooperation to fight narcotics trafficking, counter international terrorism and illegal immigration, create a free trade zone and unificate transportation tariffs.
