Voloshyn O. Policy of Russia in Respect to Commonwealth of Independent States.

The thesis analyses policy of Russia with regard to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as an interstate regional organization from the moment of its foundation in the year 1991 up to the present. It is proved that the corresponding policy never existed irrespective of the general course of Russia as to the post-Soviet countries and always appeared in a role of instruments implementing this course. It is demonstrated that changes of approaches of Russia towards the CIS development for the first twenty years of its existence had an evolutionary character based on the constant search of the optimal forms of utilizing the CIS for realization of the national interests of the Russian Federation at the post-Soviet space.