MOSCOW : Former Soviets Gather

National leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States will be in Moscow on Friday for a meeting on a proposed agreement that would strengthen economic ties between the 12 CIS countries--all the former Soviet republics except the Baltic states--followed by a discussion of military cooperation.

Beefing up the economic and military skeleton of the organization serves the interests of Russia, whose leading role has become even more pronounced since President Boris N. Yeltsin was appointed to a six-month term as CIS chairman at its summit in Turkmenistan last December.

Razing economic barriers within the Commonwealth means the smaller countries can look to Russia as a stable source of cheap energy--a role it is ready to fulfill in return for extensive control over the other members’ economic policies and some sort of security guarantee for ethnic Russian minorities in the CIS states.