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Russia’s denunciation of already ‘dead’ CFE Treaty to have no impact — Kremlin

The CFE Treaty was signed in 1990 and adapted in 1997

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/. Russia's denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) will have essentially no impact as the mechanism became obsolete long ago, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

When asked what impact Russia's decision to denounce the document would have, the Kremlin spokesman said: "Well, there shouldn't be any direct [impact], because in fact it was already a dead mechanism and, believe me, not through the fault of the Russian Federation." "So, in this case, the Russian side simply brought the situation de facto into line," Peskov said, reiterating that "now there will be no direct impact."

On the other hand, the spokesman continued, in this area, as well as "in the field of arms control, strategic stability, there is now, of course, a large void that, in theory, urgently needs to be filled by new acts of international law that would regulate this situation. "This is in the interest of practically the whole world, but it requires functioning bilateral relations with a number of states, which we do not have at the moment, through no fault of our own," Peskov pointed out.

When asked about the possibility that such acts would appear, Peskov stressed that this "should be preceded by a lot of hard and protracted work."

Earlier on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill on Russia's denunciation of the CFE Treaty.

The CFE Treaty was signed in 1990 and adapted in 1997. However, NATO countries did not ratify the adapted version of the document 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.