Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday at an operational meeting with permanent members of the Russian Security Council suggested discussing the development of ties with the CIS countries.
"We have a whole set of significant competitive advantages with the post-Soviet republics in order to achieve positive results in development in very many areas, primarily in economic activity, the economy. Common transport systems, energy systems, the lack of some kind of language barrier and so on and so forth, many things," said the president.
He proposed discussing further development of relations: "Let's talk about this today, what we can and should do more to achieve the best results in our joint work for the development of our states".
Putin recalled that on May 9 the leaders of many CIS countries visited Moscow and attended the Victory Parade. "This is quite natural, because it was the peoples of the Soviet Union who won the victory over Nazism in the Great Patriotic War," the Russian president stressed.
The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, Presidential Administration Chief Anton Vaino, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin, Special Representative of the President of Russia on the Issues of Environmental Activities, Ecology and Transport Sergei Ivanov.
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Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS