The Belovezha Accords: Conclusion and Implementation

After the failed coup of August 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's attempt to hold the republics together through a new union treaty entered a crisis, while Russian leader Boris Yeltsin's position strengthened. By the end of the year, relations of authority between the republics and the union center, economic ties and control of the armed forces all required new arrangements.

On 7–8 December, Yeltsin, Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and Belarusian Supreme Soviet Chairman Stanislav Shushkevich met at the Viskuli residence in the Belovezha Forest near Belarus's border with Poland. The three parties turned toward replacing the existing union framework with arrangements for cooperation among independent states.

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On 8 December, the three parties signed the Agreement Establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States, commonly known as the Belovezha Accords. Its closing formula gave Minsk as the place of execution, with the Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian texts equally authoritative. The agreement comprised a preamble and fourteen articles. Invoking the parties' status as signatories to the 1922 Union Treaty, its opening declared that the USSR had ceased to exist as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality; Article 1 immediately established the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS.

The agreement located the CIS coordinating bodies in Minsk and provided for former USSR institutions to cease operating within participating states. It was open to other former Soviet republics and other states accepting its purposes and principles, making the three signatures only the starting point of the cooperative arrangement.

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Article 5 recognized and respected the parties' territorial integrity and the inviolability of existing borders, while committing to open borders, free movement of people and circulation of information within the CIS. Articles 2 and 3 concerned equal rights, the rights of people residing in another participating state, and protection of the cultural, linguistic and religious identity of national minorities.

Joint activities included foreign-policy coordination, cooperation in a common economic space and markets, transport and communications, environmental protection, migration policy and the fight against organized crime. A separate article addressed the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, calling for coordinated efforts and a special agreement. Disputes over interpretation or application were first to be negotiated by the relevant bodies and, if necessary, referred to heads of government and heads of state.

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Article 6 emphasized the military-strategic space and control of nuclear weapons, envisaging retention of unified command and a separate agreement to define nuclear-control procedures. It also respected the parties' wishes to establish nuclear-free zones and remain neutral. Article 12 committed them to fulfilling international obligations arising from former Soviet treaties. These provisions established cooperative responsibilities and procedures still to be elaborated; military reorganization and the disposition of nuclear weapons required subsequent decisions.

On the day of signing, Yeltsin telephoned U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush, explaining the deadlock in negotiations for a new union treaty and stressing that the three parties would honor international obligations, maintain unified nuclear-weapons control and prevent proliferation. The White House record shows that Bush agreed to study the agreement, hoped for a peaceful transition, and said that specific issues should be decided by the participants rather than by the United States.

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After signature, each republic conducted its own ratification process. The Belarusian Supreme Soviet adopted Resolution No. 1296-XII on 10 December; Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada adopted Resolution No. 1958-XII the same day, explicitly ratifying with reservations. Russia's Supreme Soviet adopted its ratification resolution, No. 2014-I, on 12 December.

The Russian resolution also addressed legal transition. Until corresponding Russian laws were enacted, former Soviet rules could continue to apply insofar as they did not conflict with the Russian Constitution, Russian laws or the agreement. This provided a transitional method between the agreement's principle of excluding former Soviet norms and the practical operation of domestic law, rather than immediately clearing away all existing law at signature.

References: [2] [3] [4]

On 21 December, eleven states signed a protocol in Alma-Ata, forming the CIS as equal contracting parties. The protocol explicitly stated that the founding agreement would enter into force for each party upon its ratification, and that subsequent cooperation documents would take account of reservations made during ratification. Thus 8 December was the signature date, while ratification and entry into force for each party require separate explanation.

The declaration adopted that day stated that the CIS was neither a state nor a supranational entity. Separate documents established Councils of Heads of State and Heads of Government, entrusted command to Marshal Shaposhnikov pending resolution of military reorganization, and supported Russia's continuation of the Soviet seat at the United Nations, including permanent membership of the Security Council. These decisions advanced the three-party agreement to multistate coordination, although joint nuclear-weapons measures remained subject to separate ratification and entry-into-force conditions.

References: [6]