29 May 2023 13:11

Putin signs law on withdrawing from CFE Treaty

MOSCOW. May 29 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill on withdrawing from the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, as follows from a document published on the official online database of legal information on Monday.

The CFE Treaty was signed in Paris on November 19, 1990. It took effect on November 9, 1992.

According to supplementary materials, the CFE Treaty sets quantitative restrictions on members in five categories of conventional forces, namely battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery, warplanes, and combat helicopters.

Russia ratified the CFE Treaty in July 1992. It also ratified an agreement on adaptation of the CFE Treaty dated November 19, 1999, in 2004 but it never took effect. President Putin suspended Russia's implementation of the CFE Treaty on July 13, 2007. The suspension was formalized by a federal law of November 29, 2007.

"Article XIX of the CFE Treaty establishes the right of a State Party to withdraw from the Treaty, in exercising its national sovereignty, if it concludes that extraordinary events related to the subject matter to the Treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests," the materials said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier that it would take about six months to complete the process of Russia's withdrawal from the CFE Treaty.

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