MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/. The State Duma Committee on International Affairs has recommended to approve a draft bill denouncing the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Leonid Slutsky, the committee’s chair and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) told TASS on Thursday.

"Yes, a unanimous decision. We will review it at a plenary session on Tuesday, the 16th," he said replying to a question on the matter.

The bill was submitted to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The head of state instructed to appoint Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov as his official representative during the review of the CFE Treaty denunciation by the Russian parliament. The State Duma’s press service said on Thursday that Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Voloding included the bill on the Duma Council’s agenda for May 15 and the document would be reviewed on a priority basis.

The CFE 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.