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Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (the CIS) 30 years ago was a justified step, TASS reports.

"We have seen many cardinal changes over the past years and decades. At the same time, I would like to stress that the very creation of the organization was certainly well-founded. Integration has grown deeper on many tracks," Putin stated at an informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.

The Russian leader said this was true of the CIS countries’ security and the economy.

"I should say that on the whole the ties that have been preserved since the Soviet era continue to play their positive role. There are common supply links and common enterprises that now operate as partners. There are value-added chains implying a rather high degree of cooperation," he said. All this, he stressed, has not just been preserved, but "moved forward and developed on a totally new basis."