Putin Signs Law on CFE Treaty Denunciation

By Staff, Agencies

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law on the denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe [CFE] by Moscow.

The relevant document is published at the official legal information portal.

Russia will not feel direct consequences of the denunciation of the CFE, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

“Well, now there shouldn't be any direct ones, because the fact is that it was already … a non-working mechanism and, believe me, not because of the fault of Russia. Here, in this case, the Russian side brought the de facto situation into line. So now there will be no direct consequences,” Peskov told reporters.

Earlier, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Federation Council has supported a bill on the denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe at a meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.

The CFE Treaty was signed in Paris in 1990 by representatives of 16 NATO member states and six Warsaw Pact members. The treaty introduced limits on major types of conventional military equipment in Europe and provided for the destruction of surplus weapons.

In 1999, an updated version of the treaty was signed at the Istanbul summit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [OSCE] to reflect the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the expansion of NATO. However, the adapted version was ratified only by Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

In 2007, Putin signed a decree suspending the country's participation in the CFE until NATO countries ratified the adaptation agreement and begin implementing their obligations under the document. At the same time, Russia remained a party to the treaty.