Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Russia's relations with the CIS countries with the Security Council on Friday, calling the topic one of the key ones.
"One of the priorities of our foreign policy is relations with the CIS countries, in the post-Soviet space. We will discuss this very topic today. I would like to stress once again that it is certainly one of the key issues for us," the head of state said at a meeting with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council.
Putin said that Russia "has a lot of initiatives and a very good dialogue with leading partners, and a large volume of trade". "We work with many of them within the framework of the EurAsEC (former name of the EAEU - TASS), within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty," he added.
"Recent events show that all this work gives a positive result, it is in demand. We will talk to you today about how to improve the mechanisms that we have created in this direction in recent years," the president added.
The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Federation Council and State Duma speakers Valentina Matvienko and Vyacheslav Volodin, Deputy Head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Presidential Administration Head Anton Vaino, Security Service Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Intelligence Service head Sergey Naryshkin and the Presidential Special Representative for Environmental Protection, Environment and Transport Sergey Ivanov.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS