MOSCOW, May 10. /TASS/. Although Russia is denouncing the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), the need for an equitable dialogue on conventional arms control remains important, Deputy Speaker of Russia’s Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Konstantin Kosachev said on Wednesday.

"By denouncing the CFE Treaty, Russia is removing a document that’s out of touch with reality from the agenda but is not putting an end to the issue of dialogue on conventional arms control, which has to be equal this time. Although we know very well how allergic NATO is to the very thought of talking to anyone on equal terms. However, the alternative is far worse, as everyone has been able to see for themselves in the past year and a half," the senator wrote on Telegram.

"[The treaty] was signed in 1990 by NATO countries and the then-Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies whose armies were on our side at the time. Under the CFE, in particular, our southern flank is still covered by the Romanian and Bulgarian armies, which seems completely absurd today," the senator noted.

According to him, some countries that joined NATO after 1990 had not existed in 1990 (Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia), while other new NATO members are former Russian allies (Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia). Thirty countries signed a new updated version of the treaty at an OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999 but only four of them have ratified the document (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine).

Kosachev noted that Russia had suspended its participation in the CFE Treaty in 2007 "until NATO countries ratified the adapted agreement and started to faithfully comply with it." Even though the situation has "significantly worsened" since then, the adapted version is still relevant and can be discussed further. However, the process now needs to cover new types of weapons such as unmanned aerial vehicles and other systems created after 1990, the politician emphasized.

CFE Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov as his official representative for parliamentary consideration of Russia’s denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, according to a presidential decree published on Wednesday.

The treaty was signed in 1990 and adapted in 1997. However, NATO countries did not ratify the adapted version of the CFE and have continued to adhere to the 1990 provisions, based on the conventional arms balance between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. As a result, Russia was compelled to declare a moratorium on implementing the terms of the treaty in 2007.

On March 11, 2015, Russia suspended its participation in meetings of the Joint Consultative Group on the CFE Treaty, completing the process of suspending its membership in the CFE while remaining a purely de jure party to the treaty. Since then, Belarus has represented Russia's interests in the Joint Consultative Group.