Reuters points out some members of the CIS are having some disagreements with the Kremlin.

This year’s Presidential Cup horse race, a traditional cue for an
informal gathering of the 11-member Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS), drew only five top guests: the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Moldova and Tajikistan.

The presidents of Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and
Kyrgyzstan all failed to show up, citing personal reasons. Belarus
President Alexander Lukashenko went instead to ride a Harley-Davidson
at a local bikers’ rally.

“The CIS leaders used the chance … to show they are unhappy with
the state of relations with Russia,” said Alexei Mukhin, head of the
Center of Political Information think tank.

Medvedev’s predecessor Vladimir Putin had managed to stiffen the
loyalty of the ex-Soviet states, helped by their economic dependence on
Moscow and their fear of popular revolutions. But Russia’s war with
Georgia last year and a series of bilateral spats have strained this
loyalty again.

“A race away from Russia is inevitable,” analyst Leonid Radzikhovsky
said on an opposition-minded web site, Yezhednyevny Zhurnal.

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