Russia moved on May 10, 2023, to formally denounce the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), a landmark arms control agreement concluded at the end of the Cold War.
Bill sent to the Duma
President Vladimir Putin submitted a bill to the State Duma to denounce the treaty and related agreements, including a 1990 arrangement on maximum levels of conventional arms and equipment, TASS reported. Putin appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as his representative during the parliamentary process.
Moscow’s reasons
According to the bill’s explanatory note, the treaty was “a sufficiently efficient and effective tool for the early 1990s to strengthen European security” but has since become outdated, largely due to NATO enlargement. It accused the United States and its allies of pursuing “a policy of military confrontation with Russia” and said denunciation was needed to push Western countries to change their approach to European security.
A Cold War pact
The CFE Treaty was signed in Paris on November 19, 1990, by 16 NATO members and six Warsaw Pact states, including the Soviet Union, and entered into force in 1992, Suspilne reported. It set comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe, such as tanks, artillery, armoured vehicles, combat aircraft and attack helicopters, and required the destruction of excess weapons.
Russia suspended its implementation of the treaty in 2007 in protest at NATO expansion and in 2015 ended its participation in the treaty’s Joint Consultative Group, leaving its involvement largely formal.
Sources
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