MOSCOW, May 10. /TASS/. Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, may discuss the denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) at a plenary session on May 16, senior Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky told journalists on Wednesday.

"I’m not ruling out that this will take place on Tuesday, May 16," said Slutsky, chair of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR).

He noted that Russia suspended its participation in the CFE Treaty back in 2007 "because of the hypocritical position of the NATO bloc, whose countries have failed to ratify the adapted version of the treaty."

"From a practical point of view, the CFE Treaty has long existed only on paper. Given the existing realities in relations with unfriendly states, the CFE Treaty's final denunciation by the Russian Federation will strengthen Russia's national interests and security," Slutsky summed up.

The treaty was signed in 1990 and amended in 1997. NATO countries did not ratify the amended version of the CFE, however, 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, thus completing the process of suspending its membership in the CFE while remaining a purely de jure party to the treaty. Since then, Russia's interests in the Joint Consultative Group have been represented by Belarus.