Russia decided to denounce the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
Russia has decided to denounce the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), which was suspended by Moscow in 2007. The relevant issue will be considered by both chambers of the federal parliament, reported at the disposal of the country’s President Vladimir Putin.
Appoint Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Alekseevich Ryabkov as the official representative of the President during the consideration by the chambers of the Federal Assembly of the issue of denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
The original CFE Treaty was signed even before the collapse of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc
The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was signed on November 19, 1990 in Paris by representatives of 16 NATO countries and six member states of the Warsaw Pact Organization (WTS). The agreement entered into force on November 9, 1992, that is, after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the USSR. This treaty, concluded in the last years of the Cold War, has often been called the “cornerstone of European security.”
For each military bloc, the treaty established limits on armaments and equipment: 20,000 tanks, 30,000 armored combat vehicles, 20,000 artillery systems, 6,800 combat aircraft and 2,000 attack helicopters. The achievement of the levels established by the agreement was basically completed in 1995.
After the collapse of the USSR, the quota was divided between the states that emerged on its territory. Russia pledged to have no more than 6,400 tanks, 11,480 armored vehicles, 6,415 artillery systems, 3,450 aircraft and 890 helicopters.
6.4 thousand
tanks
it was allowed to have Russia in Europe after the collapse of the USSR under the provisions of the CFE Treaty
It was assumed that such restrictions on the number of weapons would minimize the likelihood of an attack by superior forces of one military bloc on another, which could lead to the use of nuclear weapons by the latter. Mutual inspections of military installations also played an important role.
Adapted from the 1999 CFE Treaty and the refusal of NATO countries to ratify it
By the end of the 1990s, when the former members of the Warsaw Pact joined NATO, the provisions of the CFE Treaty on the limits of military equipment for blocks lost their meaning. This required an update of the agreements. The negotiations ended with the signing on November 19, 1999 at the OSCE summit in Istanbul of the Agreement on the Adaptation of the CFE Treaty.
It provided for the transition from bloc restrictions to national and territorial ones, in particular, a limit appeared on the deployment of military equipment of other countries on the territory of sovereign states.
The Russian quota was 6,350 tanks, 11,280 armored vehicles, 6,315 artillery systems, 3,416 aircraft and 855 helicopters.
The total quota of NATO countries at the time of signing the document was 19,096 tanks, 31,787 armored vehicles, 19,529 artillery systems, 7,273 aircraft, and 2,282 helicopters.
In addition, NATO countries pledged not to permanently deploy significant combat forces, including aircraft, on the territory of new members. Armament limits for Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were also lowered.
In turn, Russia was not supposed to deploy significant forces on the territory of the Kaliningrad and Pskov regions, and also pledged to withdraw surplus weapons from Georgia and all weapons from Moldova.
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The adapted CFE treaty had to be ratified by all parties to the basic treaty. However, only Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia did this. This eventually became the reason for Moscow’s imposition of a moratorium in 2007, while not a single NATO country began to ratify the agreement, insisting that Moscow must first fulfill its obligations on Georgia and Moldova. Moreover, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which at that time were not yet members of the North Atlantic Alliance, refused to join the treaty at all. The Agreement on Adaptation of the CFE Treaty never entered into force. At a conference in Vienna in 2007, Russia stated that it did not consider the treaty viable in its current form and demanded that the Baltic countries join it, that the Istanbul agreement come into force and that NATO countries reduce the number of weapons and equipment. However, her demands were not met, and in the same year Moscow imposed a moratorium.
Russia suspended participation in the CFE Treaty in 2007
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Russia’s suspension of the CFE Treaty and related documents on July 13, 2007. This decision was ratified by both houses of parliament and entered into force on the night of December 12, 2007, 150 days after the date of its receipt by the Dutch depository.
The reference to the decree of the head of state of July 13, 2007 noted that the reasons for Moscow’s decision were the evasion of former members of the Warsaw Pact, who became members of NATO, from re-registration of their weapons into the Western bloc, the direct excess of the established limits by the North Atlantic Alliance, the deployment of US military bases in Bulgaria and Romania, non-fulfillment by NATO countries of obligations to ratify the adapted CFE signed in 1999 and others.
Russia’s implementation of the agreement was suspended “until the NATO countries ratify the Adaptation Agreement and begin to implement this document in good faith.” In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the parties to the agreement made several attempts to resolve the accumulated contradictions, but all negotiations came to a standstill. In November 2011, the United States announced that it would no longer accept Russian inspections under the CFE Treaty and transfer military data to Moscow, while continuing to comply with the quantitative restrictions established by the treaty. Soon the United Kingdom announced a similar step.
In 2014, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov named CFE Treaty “dead”, and in 2015 Moscow refused to participate in joint consultations, thereby completely suspending its participation in the agreement.
The annual report published by the US Department of State notes that, to date, the treaty violate only three states – Russia, which has ceased participation in the CFE Treaty, as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan, which, according to Washington, exceed the limits established by the agreement and do not transmit the required data.
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