Vox populi on CIS
Twenty-five years ago, on December 8, 1991, the Soviet Union “ceased to exist”. In the “Viskuli” residence, in the Bialowieza Forest, leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine — Stanislau Shushkevich, Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk — and the government heads of the three Slavic republics of the USSR signed an agreement on creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
‘Belsat’ journalists asked passers-by on the streets of Minsk what the CIS gave Belarus and whether there is any alternative to this organization.
“What is the use? What do we get from the CIS? We receive oil at world prices. All this time Lukashenka has been trying to negotiate the price. It doesn’t work well. The CIS is useless for us,” she said.
“But what kind of alternative do you mean? There;s none. Batka Lukashenka is doing his best,” said the man.
“We have been together for so many years, I cannot even imagine us leaving it. We sell, Russia has more resources,” says another surveyed.
“Being alone is worse than in some kind of CIS,” said another passer-by.
“Belsat” filmarchive has a film by Viktar Aslyuka called “Fragments,” which tells a story about how people changed after the Soviet collapse. The film tells what unites and separates people.
