On the October 13, 2025 broadcast of "Aktualny Mikrafon" on Belarusian Radio's First National Channel, participants discussed economic relations between CIS member states. During the broadcast, co-host Alena Shvaiko posed a viewer question to the studio guest, Iryna Novikava, head of the Department of Management, Business Technologies and Sustainable Development at the Belarusian State Technological University: "Georgia isn't part of the CIS, so the question is: we do still trade with them, right?"
"No, why, it's a member! ... So let me explain — it's a common misconception. Even Moldavia, even Ukraine," Novikava responded.
"But Ukraine left, supposedly," the host objected.
"No, let me... You can submit a letter of withdrawal. But there was no exit procedure, you understand? And so, well, when these... When someone comes along and says: 'I'm leaving.' Buddy, you can plan whatever you want, there's no exit procedure," the program's guest explained.
In other words, Iryna Novikava claimed that leaving the CIS is impossible. The WTF team found that this claim is false. The Charter of the Commonwealth of Independent States stipulates that to withdraw from the organization, a member must give 12 months' notice of its decision. Georgia did just that: in August 2008, it submitted a withdrawal application and a year later officially left the CIS. The decision on removal was made by the organization's Council of Foreign Ministers and announced on the Commonwealth's website.
As for Ukraine: it's true that it hasn't left the CIS. But not because it's impossible, rather because, according to the country's officials, it was never formally a full member of the Commonwealth. Kyiv took part in creating the CIS by signing the agreement establishing it in 1991. But it never signed or ratified the CIS charter. In other words, the Ukrainian side maintains that legally it was not bound by the charter's obligations and did not need to go through the formal exit procedure. Although on the CIS websiteUkraine is listed as a member of the organization. In practice, however, Kyiv stopped participating in meetings of most CIS bodies in 2014, and in 2018 decided not to participate in its structures and has been gradually withdrawing from agreements signed within the Commonwealth ever since.
Moldova, which Novikava referred to by the outdated Soviet name "Moldavia," remains a CIS member but is gradually scaling back its participation in the organization's activities. In 2023, Chisinau announced it would no longer pay membership fees to Commonwealth structures. In 2025, Moldova is withdrawing from most agreements concluded within the CIS framework, keeping only those related to social, economic and humanitarian issues.
