​President Vladimir Putin on Monday announced the law on Russia’s denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), TASS reports.

The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, passed the corresponding bill on May 16, less than a week after Putin personally asked the government in Moscow to withdraw from the arms control treaty.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Ryabkov, appointed by Putin to be responsible for the process of Russia’s exit from the CSTO, stated before the State Duma that “it will take about six months for Russia to completely withdraw from this treaty,” which “in the current conditions, it has completely become a relic of the past.”

“We will publicly report to the NATO countries and the international community that it was the West with its destructive actions that made it impossible for us to stay in the treaty,” the Russian official justified.

The Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE), signed in 1990 and renewed in 1999, was at the time of its signing considered a cornerstone of the security architecture in Europe, as it eliminated the quantitative and numerical advantage that the Soviet Union had in terms of conventional weapons.

The treaty sets for each country the maximum number of tanks, armored vehicles, heavy artillery, fighter jets and attack helicopters that NATO countries and Warsaw Pact countries (which formally still existed at the time of the signing of the treaty) can have. occur between the Atlantic and the Ural Mountains.

Russia withdrew from international arms control treaties signed with the West

After several years of disagreements between Russia and NATO, in 2007 Moscow suspended its obligations under the CSTO, citing US plans at the time to deploy anti-missile shield elements in Poland and Romania, actions that Russia says pose a direct threat to its security.

At the beginning of the year, Russia suspended its participation in the new NPT nuclear arms control treaty, the last major disarmament treaty still in force between Russia and the US.

According to Serhiy Ryabkov’s statement, Moscow warned in early March that it would not reconsider suspending its participation in this latest pact until the US changed its policy toward Ukraine.

However, on May 16, the United States released details of its strategic nuclear deterrent arsenal, saying it wanted to abide by the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty and calling on Russia to do the same.

Ryabkov said on Tuesday that Russia does not plan to do this.

“We do not take this into account in any way, I read it (the document), my colleagues from other departments also looked at it. After some time, we will archive it, but we will judge the situation based on completely different approaches and principles – the SNO is suspended,” the Russian official emphasized.

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