Commonwealth of Democratic Choice

For the first time, the idea of ​​creating a “coalition uniting the former republics in which people managed to shed power through popular uprisings” was voiced by the foreign ministers of Georgia ( Salome Zurabishvili ) and Ukraine ( Boris Tarasyuk ) on March 31, 2005 , when they visited Kyrgyzstan as settlement mediators relations between the ousted president Askar Akayev and the new authorities.

On August 12, 2005, the Presidents of Georgia and Ukraine Mikheil Saakashvili and Viktor Yushchenko signed the declaration “In Defense of Freedom and Democracy in the Region”. “We took the initiative to convene a summit in Ukraine with the participation of leaders of the countries of the region, Russia and the USA,” Saakashvili said at a joint press conference after the signing ceremony. The President of Georgia noted that the goal of the summit is to create a coalition of democratic states. In turn, Yushchenko said that the summit will be held approximately in the second half of the year. “We would like to see the leaders of the Baltic, Black Sea and Caspian regions, as well as neighbors from Russia , the European Union and the USA” ^[1] .

The composition of the new coalition has not yet been drawn up on paper, and it had only a working title - " Democratic Choice ." The founders of the organization were Ukraine and Georgia - countries that survived the peaceful revolutions. It was assumed that all post-Soviet republics would become members of the “Democratic Choice”, where the opposition would come to power with the support of the people who took to the streets. “The experience of Georgia and Ukraine boils down to the fact that we were able to overcome the domestic political crisis and were able to organize the transfer of power in a peaceful way,” explained Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Tarasyuk. The third member of this organization, Tarasyuk proposed to become Kyrgyzstan after normalizing the situation in Bishkek. “After the legitimate process of the establishment of power, it will be possible to consider the issue of its accession,” he explained.

It was known that the coalition intends to support the opposition in other states and “remind the partner states of the need to observe democratic principles” ^[2] . “Revolutions cannot be exported,” said Yushchenko and Saakashvili in a joint appeal to the Kyrgyz people, who were brought to Bishkek by the foreign ministers. “In our three states, the elections were just an excuse, the last straw that overflowed the patience of the people and pushed them to the struggle for freedom and democracy.”

Simultaneously with the creation of the new organization, steps were taken to revive the GUUAM organization and a summit of this organization was held. After the Andijan events , GUUAM lost one of the participants - Uzbekistan - and again became GUAM.

On December 2, 2005, the constituent forum of the Commonwealth of Democratic Choice (the “Community of Democracies of the Baltic-Black Sea-Caspian Region”) was held in Kiev.

The Commonwealth Declaration on Democratic Choice, approved at the forum, says that its participants strive for Europe without dividing lines, human rights violations, “frozen” conflicts, any spirit of confrontation, they intend to work closely to achieve lasting peace, democracy and prosperity in Europe continent, to collaborate for the development and strengthening of democracy, recognizing that different countries in the field of vision of the Commonwealth of Democratic Choice are at different stages of democratic wow development.

According to reports, Viktor Yushchenko sent an invitation to Vladimir Putin to personally participate “as an observer” ^[3] in this forum.

The development of the idea of ​​creating an alternative organization to the CIS was the summit of the states of the Baltic and Black Sea regions, which opened on May 4, 2006 in Vilnius (Lithuania).

The members of the founding forum of the Commonwealth of Democratic Choice were supplemented by senior representatives of the United States and EU member states, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski and US Vice President Dick Cheney.

On the eve of his departure for Vilnius, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered the government to study the feasibility of further Georgia’s membership in the CIS. This decision is connected with the ban imposed by Russia on the import of Georgian agricultural products and wine.

The summit’s official press release noted that “the countries of Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus are the most promising region in terms of strengthening democracy and stability beyond the current borders of the EU and NATO.”

• December 1-2, 2005: Kiev , Ukraine
• March 9-10, 2006: Tbilisi , Georgia
• May 4-5, 2006: Vilnius , Lithuania

• For Democracy and the Rights of Peoples - an international organization formed on July 14, 2006 by the leaders of Abkhazia , the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic and South Ossetia
• en: Community of Democracies

• “Vilnius Conference 2006: A Common Vision of Common Neighborhood” - Summit of the Baltic and Black Sea Regions (2006), which opened on May 4, 2006 in Vilnius