Moscow - President Vladimir Putin signed a moratorium on
Russia's compliance with a Cold War arms control treaty in a move to
defend Russia's might on the world scene, the Kremlin said Friday.
Angry over US plans to build a missile defence system in Eastern
Europe and growing Western influence in post-Soviet states, Putin in
July decreed Russia suspend participation in the treaty on
Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).
The move comes on the final day of campaigning for Russia's
parliamentary elections during which Putin, agitating as head of the
dominant party's ticket, has accused the West of interfering and
trying to weaken Russia.
Senior Duma Deputy Andrei Kokshin Friday hailed Putin's choice as
a 'demonstration of the increased influence and authority of Russia
in world politics,' he said on Vesti news channel.
The US and Europe have pressed Russia not to abstain from the
treaty, saying it could lead to the disintegration of the network of
Cold War security treaties and lead to a new arms race.
The moratorium on the treaty, which limits weapons stocks from the
Ural mountains to the Atlantic, went into affect immediately with
Putin's signature after the State Duma overwhelmingly approved the
Kremlin's initiative in a 418-0 vote earlier this month.
Addressing Russia's top military officials last week, Putin
couched suspension of the treaty as a necessary response to 'muscle
flexing' by NATO, which Russia resent for its expansion into Eastern
Europe.
We reserve 'the right to do that is necessary for our safety' and
'will not have our hands tied,' Federation Council Speaker Sergei
Mironov said Friday, the Interfax news agency reported.
'By the treaty terms, we cannot even move a superfluous tank in
our own territory,' he said.
The Foreign Ministry said with the moratorium, Russia will stop
NATO inspections of its military, but senior military officers said
it would not result in a drastic redeployment of troops along the
country's western border.
The CFE treaty, signed between 16 NATO nations and six former
Warsaw Pact nations in 1990, is a key part of Europe's disarmament
system, but with the upheaval of the strategic balance brought on by
the fall of the Soviet Union a new treaty was drafted in 1999.
Russia is the only country to have signed the amended treaty,
boycotted by the United States and NATO members until Russia
withdraws its troops form the breakaway regions it supports in the
former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO countries Friday of
allowing the de facto cessation of the treaty, saying they had
'concocted conditions (for Russia) that have nothing to do with the
document.'
European leaders exhorted Russia this month not to scrap
participation in the CFE, fearing it could trigger the unravelling of
arms restraining agreements set since the Cold War amid
recriminations over the planned US missile shield plans, which Moscow
views as a threat to its security.
Germany and France's foreign ministers warned of the 'the spectre
of a new Cold War,' saying in a joint statement that 'an erosion of
the CFE treaty could lead to a new arms race and lines of
confrontation.'
Lavrov said that Russia remained open to a renewed dialogue on the
defunct treaty, but analysts were skeptical that it would be possible
to return to the agreement.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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