Ivan Sukhov: Russia is playing with fire in the CIS
Russia's President Vladimir Putin looks over at the French president during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Brisbane on Nov. 15.
Prior to the Russia-Georgia War in 2008, when four regions in the former Soviet space - Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transdnestr and Nagorno-Karabakh - still lacked official recognition, their leaders would occasionally meet under the informal moniker of the CIS-2. Some refer to the group as the Second Commonwealth of Independent States, others as the First Alliance of Unrecognized States. Either way, the CIS-2 plays an increasingly important role in Russian foreign policy.
