Too useful to die: Russia’s post-Soviet project gets an Iranian boost

Long dismissed as a relic, the CIS is finding fresh momentum in trade, transport links, and Tehran’s proposal for a new partnership The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit held in Turkmenistan on October 9, 2026 delivered a forceful answer to those who have spent years predicting its demise.

As it marks its 35th anniversary, the organization brings together countries with different priorities and is drawing interest even beyond the former Soviet Union.

The biggest surprise at this year’s summit was not simply the Iranian president’s attendance at a gathering traditionally reserved for Commonwealth leaders, but Masoud Pezeshkian’s proposal to establish a ‘CIS+1’ format.

Tehran signaled its readiness for sustained cooperation with an organization whose work had been confined to relations among former Soviet republics.

In doing so, Iran gave the Commonwealth fresh momentum, proposing to broaden its agenda beyond the post-Soviet region.

Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov had good reason to describe the CIS’s 35th anniversary as an important historical milestone.

The summit in Turkmenistan bore out that assessment.

More than a Soviet afterthought The Commonwealth began as an integration project, although its achievements have differed from the expectations of the early 1990s.

It helped preserve the agreements underpinning trade, transportation links, and cultural and social ties after the breakup of a shared state.

New borders cut across economic networks built over decades.

The CIS enabled many of those connections to adapt to the realities of national sovereignty.

Businesses retained access to customers and suppliers, while people could continue working, studying, and staying in touch with loved ones in neighboring countries.

It is in these everyday arrangements that the value of the CIS becomes clear.

Competing visions of the Commonwealth’s future emerged in its earliest years.