Azerbaijan, Baku, 13 May / Trend corr. R.Agayev, E.Rustamov, D.Novosvitski / Moscow by creating a special Agency on the CIS affairs and considering the post Soviet zone under its influence, will settle the problematic interaction issues more operative and will restore its lost positions, experts believe.
"By establishing the Agency it will be easier to establish contacts and develop relations with these countries. The establishment of the Agency, which will solve problems regarding interaction within CIS countries, will be good,' Mikhail Alexandrov, Head of the Caucasus Department of Russian Institute on CIS countries, stated.
Establishment of a new Agency on CIS affairs was declared in Russia on 12 May. The Agency will be under the Russian Foreign Ministry control. The Russian media does not detail the issue. However, there are rumors that establishment of the new Agency was connected with election of the new President Dmitri Medvedev, formation of the structure and framework of the new Russian government headed by Vladimir Putin, prime Minster.
So far, according to Alexandrov, the issues of interaction with the CIS countries were trusted only with the Foreign Ministry, which takes care of all the political issues and can not manage to fulfill its obligation because of a great deal of work. "However, the Foreign Ministry just has no time to consider the domestic and technical issues, connected with the citizen movement, cargo transport and settlement of human rights issues on the CIS countries. Therefore, establishment of the Agency will serve as more effective step for settlement of the problems in CIS," Alexandrov stated to Trend .
The Ukrainian political expert Aleksandr Paliy believes that by establishing a separate agency on CIS Russia attempts to restore its position in these countries, still considering them its influence zone. "Such departments for work with CIS have been founded in almost all the central bodies of the Russian Federation, but evidently, it is not enough to reach aims," Paliy, the expert of the Foreign Policy Institute of the Diplomatic Academy under the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine said to Trend on 13 May.
"By establishing such agency, Russia attempts to expand its influence in CIS member states in political, economic, cultural and even from military point of view," the expert said.
According to the Georgian expert David Darchiashvili, the newly-established agency will work only on paper, but not in reality. "By establishing such agency for CIS under the control of Russia, nothing special will happen. The leading political opinion in Russia had not deviated from the world view of 19th century and has nothing to do with the modern times, it is inadequate to the wishes of independent states," David Darchiashvili, the candidate from the ruling Unified National Division and who has been nominated for the parliament elections said to Trend on 13 May.
Each country has its own interests which do not coincide with that of Russia, said David Darchiashvili, the former executive director of the Open Society Institute -Georgia (Soros Foundation). "Many agencies may be established in CIS. It anyone wants to cooperate with this agency, let them do so," he said.