On December 8, 1991, even before the Soviet Union was officially dissolved, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met in the Belovezh Forest outside Minsk to lay the groundwork for the post-Soviet era. There they signed what became known as the Belovezh Accords, creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Two weeks later, eight other Soviet republics joined the three founding members. In the void left by the collapse of the USSR,...