MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday formally withdrew from a landmark security treaty which limited key categories of conventional armed forces, blaming the United States for undermining post-Cold War security with the enlargement of the Nato military alliance.

The 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), signed a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, placed verifiable limits on categories of conventional military equipment that Nato and the then-Warsaw Pact could deploy.

The treaty was designed to prevent either side of the Cold War from amassing forces for a swift offensive against the other in Europe, but was unpopular in Moscow as it blunted the then Soviet Union’s advantage in conventional weapons.

Russia suspended participation in the treaty in 2007 and halted active participation in 2015. More than a year after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin in May signed a decree to denounce the pact.

Nato allies suspend its operation, as US decides to join them next month

Russia’s foreign ministry said Russia had formally withdrawn from the pact at midnight — and that the treaty was now “history”.

“The CFE Treaty was concluded at the end of the Cold War, when the formation of a new architecture of global and European security based on cooperation seemed possible, and appropriate attempts were made,” the ministry said.

Russia said the US push for enlargement of Nato had led to alliance countries “openly circumventing” the treaty’s group restrictions, and added that the admission of Finland into Nato and Sweden’s application meant the treaty was dead.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the depths of the Cold War. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said over the weekend that relations with the United States were below zero.

After Russia announced its intention to exit the treaty this year, Nato condemned the decision, saying it undermined Euro-Atlantic security.

“Russia has for many years not complied with its CFE obligations,” Nato said in June. “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and Belarus’ complicity, is contrary to the objectives of the CFE Treaty.”

In 2011, in response to the Russian “suspension”, which Washington said was not legal under the treaty, the United States and Nato ceased implementing it in relation to Russia, according to the State Department.

“Russia’s ‘suspension’ of Treaty implementation since 2007 has seriously eroded the Treaty’s verifiability, decreased transparency, and undermined the cooperative approach to security that have been core elements of the Nato-Russia relationship and European security for more than two decades,” the State Department said in 2020.

Nato allies condemn move

Meanwhile, Nato allies condemned the decision by Russia to withdraw from the treaty and said they would suspend its operation in response.

“Allies condemn Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), and its war of aggression against Ukraine which is contrary to the Treaty’s objectives,” a Nato statement read.

“Therefore, as a consequence, Allied States Parties intend to suspend the operation of the CFE Treaty for as long as necessary, in accordance with their rights under international law. This is a decision fully supported by all Nato allies.”

The US said it would suspend treaty obligations effective Dec 7. Russia’s war against Ukraine and its withdrawal from the treaty “fundamentally altered” circumstances related to it and transformed participants’ obligations, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

However, Sullivan said despite Moscow’s continued disregard for arms control, the US and its allies would remain committed to effective conventional arms control.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2023