Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law on the denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) by Moscow.
Putin ordered for the treaty to be denounced on May 10, 2023. On May 16, the Russian State Duma voted to denounce the agreement, and on May 24, the Federation Council followed suit.
The CFE Treaty, which was signed on November 19, 1990 by all NATO and Warsaw Pact member states, imposed restrictions on the amount of conventional arms and combat equipment its signatories can possess. The agreement came into effect in November 1992, after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
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. At the same time, the West made ratification of the Istanbul agreement conditional on the dismantling of Russian military bases in Georgia and Moldova. In the end, however, the NATO countries did not ratify it, as the Russian side consistently refused under various pretexts to withdraw its troops from Moldovan territory (Transnistria) or to dismantle the military base in Abkhazia (Gudauta), which is formally part of Georgia.
As a consequence of the ‘suspension’ of the treaty’s implementation back in 2007, Russia’s denunciation of it is of no practical significance from a military point of view. The Kremlin’s decision is purely a political-propaganda demonstration.
