As regular and comforting as the annual “La Tomatina” tomato fight in Spain, CIS member countries gathered again this year to ask the annual Summit question, ‘What to do with the CIS?"
Although a tomato fight might be more substantive than the agenda items on this year’s docket, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rakhmonov, used the multi-lateral CIS venue to promote their own agenda for bi-lateral relations. Why? Because no one has any idea what to do at CIS summits anymore.
Meanwhile, Jamestown reports that Kyrgyzstan’s head of the state agency for preventing corruption among tax agents, customs officals, border guards, and police, describes these agencies as “champions” of bribery, and “lamented the inability of his agency to do anything other than monitor the extent of corruption." Alas, such issues are "Too Hot for the CIS" so Presidents Bakiyev and Rakhmonov just smiled for the cameras.
Given the lack of a mission, or any obvious desire to craft a constructive multi-lateral agenda, EternalRemont recommends that next year’s CIS summit forsake the usual rituals and follow the Spanish lead in a battle royale ala “La Tomatina.” Anything is more constructive that the current agenda. Such is the state of the CIS.
Viva La Tomatina!
PBD
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