The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is the Beast that "is not" (Rev. 17:8).
If one includes the Russian Federation, there are currently nine full members and one Associate Member (Turkmenistan), which makes ten.
Georgia and Ukraine were former member states:
Georgia left the organisation in 2009. On 19 May 2018, President Poroshenko signed a decree formally ending Ukrainian participation in the CIS. In Moldova, legislative initiatives to denounce the agreement on the creation of the CIS have been tabled due to Russian support for the independence of breakaway regions within Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine, and due to its violation of the Istanbul Agreement. Moscow’s real reason for attacking Georgia was to prevent Georgia joining NATO.
Before the so-called collapse of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev had proposed a reorganization of the USSR under the name of The Union of Sovereign States. The proposal was never implemented in the wake of the August 1991 Coup and the dissolution of the Soviet Union that year. The overall proposal was resurrected as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as a regional organization, not a confederation. The Commonwealth of Independent States was founded on 8 December 1991 by the Byelorussia SSR, the Russian SFSR, and the Ukraine SSR, when the leaders of these three republics met in Belarus and signed the Agreement Establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States, known as the Creation Agreement. The Belavezha Accords declared that the Soviet Union was ceasing to exist and proclaimed the CIS in its place. The Alma-Ata Protocol declared that the Soviet Union was dissolved and that the Russian Federation was to be its successor state. The Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), which regard their membership with the Soviet Union as an illegal occupation, chose not to participate in the CIS. All three had been incorporated into the USSR in 1940. Georgia withdrew it membership of the CIS in 2008, while Ukraine, which participated as an Associate state, announced in 2018 that it would end its participation in CIS statutory bodies.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) should be perceived as the Beast that is not, despite comprising most of the former SSRs of the Soviet Union. The CIS is neither the seventh nor eighth kingdom, but is an organization that exists in the interim period between the seventh and eighth kingdom.
The Russian Federation is the Little Horn of Daniel chapter 7 and is not to be counted as one of the Ten Kings, despite being a member of the CIS.
The Ten Horns of the Beast are the other members of the CIS which were formerly Soviet Republics.
As a soviet republic, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic did not have hegemony over the other soviet republics, theoretically at least. During the Soviet period (1917-1991), none of the Soviet Republics were independent sovereign states. They only gained individual sovereignty when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. (Rev. 17:12)
The current period of the CIS is the "one hour" during which the former Soviet Republics enjoy indepedence as sovereign states along with the Russian Federation. The crowns on the Ten Horns signify this sovereignty.
behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots (Dan. 7:8)
Georgia and Ukraine are two of the three Horns that are to be uprooted by the Little Horn.
In the five day war in 2008, the Russian Federation destroyed the Georgian army. Although there was no regime change at the time, pro-Western reformer Mikheil Saakashvili (Geogia's president 2004-2013) was jailed after returning from exile in Ukraine in 2021 on abuse of power charges. He weighs half his original body weight and has been deemed "a poltical prisoner" by the Council of Europe rights watchdog. Georgian Dream, Georgia's ruling party, is generally considered teo be pro-Kremlin.The main opposition partpy, the United National Movement, was founded by Saakashvili.
The annexation of Crimea is an unprecedented step. Until Crimea, Russia had never formally annexed the territory its forces occupied, nor had it deposed the local government. Given the historical and cultural ties between the two Slavic nations, few anticipated that such a fate could befall Ukraine.
The US administration wanted to use the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest to sanction the start of accession procedures for Georgia and Ukraine but instead the summit merely announced that Georgia and Ukraine would become members of NATO. Shortly afterwards, Putin invaded Georgia. Putin successfully pressed Viktor Yakunovych to reject a proposed trade association with the EU but this resulted in the Maidan protests, so in violation of the Budapest Memorandum, Russian regular and paramilitary troops took control of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Russia also launched hybrid warfare in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Russia then turned its hybrid war into a conventional war by sending regular units into battle. The war in Ukraine has claimed close to 13,000 lives. Millions have become refugees. Four million people are now stuck in unrecognized separatist republics, backed by Russia.
Moldova may possibly be the third former Soviet Republic to be uprooted.
These are united in yielding their power and authority to the beast...(Rev. 17:13)
The current members of the Commonwealth of Independent States will hand over their sovereignty to the Russian Federation, the Beast.