DUSHANBE, December 8, 2014, Asia-Plus – Some Russian media sources report that the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament) is expected to discuss a draft law on Ukraine’s quitting the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will today.

Ukrainian parliamentarians reportedly initiated the draft law on Ukraine’s withdrawal from the CIS last month.  

The Ukrainian government abolished the office of a special commissioner for cooperation with Russia, the CIS, Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) and other regional associations in early November.

President Petro Poroshenko earlier recalled his envoy to the CIS, Anatoly Dron, but a spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry later described this move as “purely technical.”

Ukraine’s potential withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose alliance of former Soviet states, will primarily harm the country’s economy, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko, told Itar-Tass in an interview on November 28.

“Of course, the CIS is a voluntary association of states, and no one may ban the move of leaving it.  Legal and humanitarian consequences of this step are another case,” says Matviyenko, who also chairs the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly.

“Ukraine is connected by thousands of threads with all the CIS countries, and cooperation with them is a precondition for its economic development,” Matviyenko said, adding that the withdrawal could result in “negative consequences for millions of citizens.”