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1989 Independent 4 Dec. 8/1 [Gorbachev] set out his vision of the Common European Home, a ‘commonwealth of independent states’.]

1991 Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 8 Dec. Hereby declare the formation of a Commonwealth of Independent States, about which the parties signed an agreement on Dec. 8, 1991. The Commonwealth of Independent States, consisting of the Republic of Byelorussia, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, is open to all member-states of the former U.S.S.R., as well as to other states who share the aims and principles of this agreement.

1994 M. Ebon KGB: Death & Rebirth iii. xiii. 128 Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus..formed the core of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that emerged from the ashes of the USSR.

2001 Air Safety Week (Electronic ed.) 20 Feb. The fatal accident rate of these [sc. unscheduled] carriers is about 500 times greater over the past five years than the record scheduled carriers have achieved in the many nations now comprising the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).