MOSCOW, Nov 30: President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed into law Russia’s suspension of a Cold War treaty limiting military forces in Europe, drawing sharp criticism from Nato and the United States.

The signing came on the final day of campaigning ahead of parliamentary elections on Sunday in which Putin has accused the West of trying to weaken Russia.

“President Putin has signed the federal law on suspending Russia’s adherence to the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

The treaty’s demise highlights deteriorating relations between Moscow and Nato countries as Putin leads a drive to bolster Russia’s clout on the international stage.

In Brussels, the North Atantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) expressed regret and said questions about Russia’s possible future military posture would be raised at a foreign ministers’ meeting next week.

“We hope that the Russian Federation will not take any unilateral action that undermines the integrity of the treaty,” Nato spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels.

A senior US official said Russia’s suspension of the arms treaty was a “mistake” and urged Moscow to return to the negotiating table for talks.

“Russia has made a mistake in this unilateral behaviour of walking out of a major arms control treaty in Europe,” US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told a news conference in Madrid.

Following Putin’s signature, the suspension will enter into force on Dec 12, but a senior defence ministry official said the decision would not trigger any immediate redeployment of Russian forces on its western flank.

“The entry into force of the moratorium does not mean that Russia will immediately start redeploying troops on its flanks,” said the unnamed official quoted by the Interfax news agency.

“But we reserve the right to move our forces on our territory where we consider them necessary,” he said.

Earlier this month Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Kolmakov said plans were being considered for boosting troop deployments on western borders, once CFE provisions were frozen.

Applauding the move, a senior Russian lawmaker said other international treaties would come under scrutiny by the new parliament that is set to be dominated by Putin’s United Russia party.

“I think that we were right to do this and we should have done it earlier,” said first deputy speaker Lyubov Sliska, a senior member of United Russia, was quoted by Interfax as saying.

“I believe that this is a first step toward reviewing those agreements that do not suit Russia or harm it,” Sliska said.

Putin, who is the lead candidate for United Russia in Sunday’s vote, had ordered the moratorium in July amid a row over US plans to install an anti-missile shield in eastern Europe.

Criticising CFE, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, another Putin ally, described provisions of the treaty as “absolutely colonial”.

“Under this agreement, we cannot move a single tank on our own territory,” said Sergei Mironov quoted by Interfax.

“Russia fulfilled the CFE provisions in good faith while Nato bases sprang up in Romania, Bulgaria and the United States prepared to install its anti-missile defence system along Russia’s border,” Mironov said.

Signed by Nato members and states of the defunct Warsaw pact, the 1990 CFE treaty places strict limitations on the deployment of tanks and other military hardware across Europe.Moscow says the CFE is not working because an updated version agreed in 1999 to take account of the break-up of the Communist bloc has been ratified by Russia but not by Nato countries.

Nato members, led by the United States, say they cannot ratify the pact because Moscow has not fully complied with a related commitment to withdraw its military presence from ex-Soviet Georgia and Moldova.

—AFP