afghanistan alexander lukashenko armenia askar akayev association of southeast asian nations azerbaijan belarus boris berezovsky cis election observation missions cis national football team central asia regional economic cooperation program central asia plus japan collective security treaty organization commonwealth commonwealth of independent states cup confederation council of europe customs union de facto economic cooperation organization economics eduard shevardnadze estonia eurasian economic community european community european union foreign policy free trade zone gagauzia georgian civil war giorgi baramidze igor ivanov india international organization iran kazakhstan kiev kilometre kremlin kyrgyzstan latvia leonid kuchma lithuania mikhail gorbachev mikheil saakashvili mile minsk moldova mongolia moscow nato nikolai bordyuzha olympic games orange revolution pakistan population post-soviet states republics of the soviet union romanization of russian russia russian language saint petersburg sergei lebedev shanghai cooperation organisation soviet union tajikistan tariff tashkent tbilisi transnistria turkmenistan ukraine ukrainian language uzbekistan verkhovna rada viktor yanukovych viktor yushchenko vladimir rushailo vladimir voronin wikimedia commons working language yury yarov