Russia is preparing to formally withdraw from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), according to a decree of President Vladimir Putin published by the Kremlin on Wednesday, DPA and EFE agencies reported, citing Agerpres.

According to the presidential decree, Vladimir Putin appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Ryabkov to lead the process of denunciation of the treaty, signed in 1990 in Paris and updated in 1999 by both chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (the State Duma and the Federation Council).

The draft law on the actual withdrawal of Russia from the CSCE has not yet been submitted to the State Duma.

The document, often referred to as the “cornerstone” of European security, eliminated the Soviet Union’s quantitative superiority in conventional arms in Europe by setting equal limits on the number of tanks, armored fighting vehicles, heavy artillery, fighter jets and attack helicopters that NATO and the Warsaw Pact could deploy troops between the Atlantic Ocean and the Urals.

History of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe

The original treaty was signed by 22 NATO countries and the Soviet Union, but a version updated nine years later to reflect the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact was not ratified by the then 30 allies and was accepted only by Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine , although the latter did not submit the instrument of ratification.

The U.S. and its NATO partners have refused to ratify the new treaty until Russia first complies with new heavy weapons limits and policy documents that set out additional obligations for member states regarding future deployments, including obligations for Russia to transfer and withdraw weapons and military forces from Georgia. and the Republic of Moldova.

In 2002, Moscow said it was abiding by the document’s limits, but NATO insisted that Russia fulfill its commitments to Georgia and the Republic of Moldova before ratifying the adapted version, which the Kremlin considered a violation because four of NATO’s new members, Estonia, Latvia , Lithuania and Slovenia were not part of the original treaty and therefore had no arms restrictions.

In 2007, Russia made a statement about suspending the implementation of the agreement. The Kremlin cited US plans to install elements of its anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe, which Russia considers a “direct threat” to its security.

A year later, war broke out in Georgia, EFE reminds.

Putin asked the Russian arms industry to increase production

In 2010, the administration of President Barack Obama tried to resolve the differences through new negotiations, but they were not successful, and in 2011 the US announced that it would no longer fulfill certain obligations under the agreement to Moscow.

In 2015, a year after the illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, Russia also suspended its participation in the Consultative Contact Group with the CSCE, thereby considering the suspension announced eight years earlier as “complete”.

After the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Putin asked military defense companies to massively increase production. Since then, many companies in the sector have worked multiple shifts to meet the Russian military’s ammunition and weapons needs, including heavy weapons.

Earlier this year, Russia suspended its participation in the New Treaty on Nuclear Weapons Control, the last major disarmament treaty still in force between Russia and the US, DPA said.

Moscow warned in early March that it would not reconsider suspending its participation in this latest pact until the US changes its policy toward Ukraine, according to a statement from Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.