Putin appoints an official to supervise Russia’s exit from the suspended 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
Russia has indicated its intention to formally withdraw from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), a military transparency agreement that is currently suspended. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has been picked by President Vladimir Putin to supervise the procedure in the Russian parliament.
The appointment was revealed on Wednesday as part of regular published announcements by the Kremlin. Ryabkov will represent the government in both chambers of parliament regarding the proposed withdrawal, the document said.
CFE was one of the cornerstones of the attempted deflation of tensions between the Warsaw Pact bloc and NATO in the final days of the USSR. Signed in 1990, the agreement set limits for deployment of conventional forces on the European continent and established various transparency mechanisms, such as on-site verification inspections.
Moscow has long complained that the expansion of the US-led military alliance, which included the accession of former parts of the Warsaw Pact organization, was undermining the agreement.
In 2007, Russia announced a partial suspension of CFE, citing the failure of new NATO members to subject their military forces to the limits under the treaty. It fully withdrew from CFE mechanisms in 2015, saying it saw no purpose in continued participation.
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