Ex-Soviet states join to fight financial crisis

Eleven ex-Soviet states forming the loose Commonwealth of Independent States decided on Friday to join forces in handling the impact of the global financial crisis, Kyrgyzstan's President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said. "A decision was made today to create a working group of finance ministers in connection with the situation in the global economy," Bakiyev, whose country currently chairs the CIS, told its summit in the capital Bishkek. "I mean the financial crisis which has affected everyone," he added. Bakiyev said CIS finance ministers are expected to meet in Moscow within the next 10 days. The Russia-dominated CIS, created to reach a civilised divorce when the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, has failed to become an effective integration body. But its members, some of which are locked in bitter bilateral conflicts like Armenia... [read full story]