RUSSIA AS THE DEFINING FACTOR OF THE UNITED ECONOMIC SPACE FORMATION WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE CIS
The Soviet Union has broken up, but a considerable part of the economic relations between the former union republics, nowadays the independent states, remained, and continue to exist and develop, though from existing communications it was possible to consider that not all of them are rational according to the market criteria. However it is not obviously possible to solve existing economic problems alone for the CIS countries, firstly, owing to the sharpness of problems, including the backwardness of manufacture, and on the other hand, the Western countries are not keen on accepting the postsocialist states in their integration organizations, therefore the choice is insignificant. At the same time for the integration cooperation within the limits of the CIS there are favorable possibilities and prospects: still remaining single social and cultural space, a similar industrial-technological basis with intact technical standards and norms, the single scientific and technical base, etc. The Commonwealth of the Independent States is a heterogeneous organization whose structure includes a number of subregional groupings. The most developed states of Commonwealth (Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan) made an attempt to create the united economic space (UEP), not crowned by success yet. Now one more attempt of the UEP creation in more narrowed format with its gradual expansion in the future is being undertaken. In the course of UEP formation the consolidating role of Russia is great