Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Commonwealth of Independent States was founded on the 8th of December 1991, when the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine signed the Belovezha Accords at the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Natural Reserve in Belarus. Eight more former Soviet republics joined by signing the Alma-Ata Protocol on the 21st of December 1991, bringing the total to eleven participating states.
There are nine full member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan (as associate member since 2005), and Uzbekistan. Georgia withdrew in 2009, Ukraine stopped participating in CIS statutory bodies in 2018, and Moldova voted to formally denounce its membership in April 2026.
Georgia withdrew from the Commonwealth of Independent States following the Russo-Georgian War of 2008. The Georgian Parliament voted unanimously on the 14th of August 2008 to withdraw, and in accordance with the CIS Charter the withdrawal took effect twelve months later, on the 18th of August 2009.
The CIS Free Trade Area is a multilateral trade agreement signed in October 2011 by eight CIS prime ministers in St. Petersburg, eliminating export and import duties on goods among its members. Eight of the nine CIS member states participate; Azerbaijan is the only full CIS member state that does not.
Moldova is withdrawing from the Commonwealth of Independent States in order to align with the European Union. Following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Moldovan Parliament voted on the 2nd of April 2026 to denounce the CIS Creation Agreement, the Alma-Ata Protocol, and the CIS Charter, with President Maia Sandu promulgating the laws on the 8th of April 2026. Moldova's withdrawal will be effective on the 8th of April 2027.
CIS election monitoring has been characterised by scholars as low-quality, with a pattern of validating elections that independent observers found flawed. In multiple cases including Uzbekistan's 2005 parliamentary elections and Kyrgyzstan's 2005 parliamentary elections, the CIS declared elections free and fair while the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe reported they fell short of international standards.