Russia suspends CFE membership; remains in treaty de-jure - official
MOSCOW. March 17 (Interfax) - Russia has completed the process of suspending its membership in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) but de-jure it remains party to it, says Anatoly Antonov, Russia's Deputy Defense Minister.
"We have completed the process of suspending our CFE membership, but de-jure we remain in the treaty," he said on Tuesday.
"The suspension of our CFE membership will continue until the Russian president decides otherwise," he told reporters, calling the CFE treaty "outdated and archaic."
NATO is clearly superior to Russia in terms of conventional armed forces in Europe, he recalled. "The 28 NATO members are 2.6 times superior in terms of attack helicopters, twice by warplanes, three times by artillery systems, 1.8 times by armored fighting vehicles, and 2.7 times superior by combat tanks," the deputy defense minister said.
"Under the pretext of providing security for the Baltic States, the number of tactical fighters patrolling the airspaces of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia has been increased 3.5 times and the number of daily sorties from air bases in Lithuania and Estonia has soared from four to 14 a day," Antonov said.
Furthermore, since March 2014 NATO has deployed an additional 12 tactical fighters at air bases in Poland and Romania. In 2014, the total number of NATO tactical aircraft in areas bordering Russia and Belarus has more than doubled in comparison with 2013, while the number of sorties has topped 3,000. There has been a significant increase in NATO reconnaissance flights over the Baltic States and the Barents and Baltic seas since April 2014, up to eight to 12 sorties per week.
