Russia completely withdraws from Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty

Russia has finalised its withdrawal from the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE), which sets legally binding limits on key categories of conventional military weapons of the participating states.

Source: European Pravda, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry

Details: The ministry said in its statement that Russia officially withdrew from the CFE Treaty at midnight Moscow time (23:00 Kyiv time on 6 November) and that the agreement is now "history".

"The CFE Treaty was concluded at the end of the Cold War, when it seemed possible to form a new architecture of global and European security based on cooperation, and relevant attempts have been made," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Russia blamed the United States for the fact that NATO's expansion has led to the Alliance countries "openly circumventing" the treaty's group restrictions and added that Finland's accession to NATO and Sweden's application to join the Alliance mean the treaty is dead.

"Even the formal preservation of the CFE Treaty has become unacceptable from the point of view of the fundamental security interests of the Russian Federation," the ministry said, noting that the United States and its allies have not ratified the revised 1999 CFE Treaty.

Background:

• After Russia announced its intention to withdraw from the treaty this year, NATO condemned the decision, saying it undermined Euro-Atlantic security.
• The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was signed on 19 November 1990, in Paris by 16 NATO states (Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United States, Türkiye and France) and six Warsaw Pact states (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the USSR and Czechoslovakia) and entered into force on 9 November 1992.
• The agreement set quotas on the amount of military equipment that signatory countries could have, including tanks, artillery, helicopters and warplanes.
• Russia's participation in the treaty was suspended in July 2007 by a decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a corresponding law was passed on 29 November 2007.
• On 2 November, following a decision by the Russian parliament, Russian President Vladimir Putin also signed a law withdrawing the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

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