Russia officially withdrawn from a significant security treaty on Tuesday, which imposed restrictions on critical categories of conventional armed forces.
One year after the Berlin Wall fell, NATO and the Warsaw Pact signed the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), which limited the deployment of certain conventional military equipment.
Russia ceased active participation in the treaty in 2015, having suspended its involvement in 2007. In May, over a year subsequent to the comprehensive incursion into Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin endorsed a decree that vehemently condemned the pact.
The Russian foreign ministry declared the treaty “history” and stated that Russia formally withdrew from the pact at midnight.
Russia said NATO’s group restrictions had been openly circumvented due to the U.S. push for enlargement and that Finland’s admission and Sweden’s application meant the treaty was dead.
Moscow’s relations with the West are at their worst since the Cold War due to the Ukraine war. Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, said US relations were “below zero.”
