The borders of the Western alliance drew closer to the former Soviet Union in 1997 as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, all formerly included in the Warsaw Pact, were formally invited to join NATO, with a target date of April 1999. This historic development raised questions about how Russia would protect its geostrategic interests in the CIS and beyond. For 1997, at least, Moscow answered the challenge by trying to put its diplomatic house in order.
In May, Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin signed a charter establishing a NATO-Russia council with representation in Brussels. Also concluded was a peace accord with Pres. Aslan Maskhadov of the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya, almost three years after the start of hostilities that left the Caucasian republic in ruins. The accord helped clear the way for the conclusion in July of a crucial agreement on the export of oil from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea fields through Chechnya to Russia. After five years of stalling, Yeltsin traveled to Kiev in May to sign a far-reaching treaty recognizing Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty over Crimea. With Moscow’s agreement to the terms of the lease on the key naval base at Sevastopol, a settlement was also reached on the disposition of the Black Sea Fleet. Upon the conclusion in June of a bilateral treaty with Romania, Ukraine achieved what it had sought since the CIS was formed: recognition of its borders by all neighbouring countries. At the same time, Ukraine rejected a Russian offer of security guarantees. Rather, at the NATO summit in Madrid, it accepted an invitation to form a NATO-Ukraine consultative council similar in intent and purpose to the NATO-Russia council.
In a case of déjà vu, Russia and its closest ally, Belarus, agreed in April to integrate their states into a "union" open to the participation of other CIS countries. There were no takers, and pan-CIS initiatives were limited by and large to continued peacekeeping in Georgia’s secessionist Abkhazia republic. Disquiet was evident in the Russian-Belarusian alliance itself when Moscow protested the mistreatment of Russian journalists in Belarus. The deteriorating civil rights situation in that country raised alarm in Western capitals.
In Central Asia attention was focused on the radical Taliban’s advance into northern Afghanistan and the dual spectre of destabilization and refugees in that region. The Afghanistan situation was partly responsible for prompting the warring sides in Tajikistan’s civil conflict--the Russian-backed government and the Afghan-based United Tajik Opposition--to sit down at the peace table in June in order to sign a power-sharing agreement.
The CIS as a whole achieved positive economic growth (a projected 0.4%) in 1997, although figures varied greatly by country. The highest growth rates (over 4%) were posted in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan; the lowest was posted in Turkmenistan, where gross domestic product declined by 14.5%. Ukraine’s performance was stagnant owing to the slow pace of reforms. A survey by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development found that the CIS ranked highest in the world for corruption.