MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. Russia’s adversaries should have no illusions about Moscow’s possible return to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday.

"Clearly, the treaty has finally become a relic of the past in the new situation. Our adversaries should be under no illusion that Russia could return to it," he said at a plenary session of the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament).

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Ryabkov as his official representative for parliamentary consideration of Russia’s denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.

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.