Russia denounces the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), signed in November 1990 in Paris. The corresponding order of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin is published on the official Internet portal of legal information.
Putin appointed Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov as his representative when considering the issue of denunciation in the State Duma and the Federation Council.
In 2007, Russia suspended its participation in the CFE Treaty until the NATO countries ratify the Agreement on Adaptation and begin to implement this document in good faith.
The CFE Treaty was signed on November 19, 1990 in Paris by plenipotentiaries of 16 NATO countries and 6 member states of the Warsaw Pact Organization (WTO), it entered into force in November 1992. In 1999, at the OSCE summit in Istanbul, a new version of the CFE Treaty was signed due to the dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty Organization and the expansion of NATO, the agreement was never ratified by the alliance. On July 13, 2007, Putin signed the Decree “On the Suspension by the Russian Federation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and Related International Treaties”, and on November 29, 2007, the corresponding law was adopted. Formally, Russia remained a party to the Treaty. The CFE Treaty is based on a system of restrictions on the number of five main categories of conventional weapons and equipment in the conventional armed forces of the participating States in the area of application of the Treaty – battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery, attack helicopters and combat aircraft.
In August 2022, Russia temporarily suspended checks to be carried out under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START or START-3) at its military installations by the United States. In February 2023, Putin in a message to the Federal Assembly announced that the Russian Federation was suspending participation in the START, adding that the United States was developing new types of nuclear weapons and if the United States tested them, Russia would do the same. At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Russia will continue to comply with restrictions on strategic offensive arms and exchange information with the United States. Vladislav Inozemtsev, Doctor of Economics, Director of the Center for Post-Industrial Society Research, said in a conversation with The Insider that Putin's speech will not affect the current agenda.