Russia formally executed its withdrawal from a significant post-Cold War security agreement on Tuesday, marking a fresh indication of heightened tensions between Russia and NATO.
As of November 7, 2023, at 00:00, the process of Russia’s departure from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was successfully concluded, as confirmed by a statement from Russia’s foreign ministry posted on its official website. This marked the definitive end of an international legal document whose validity had been suspended by Russia as far back as 2007.
The CFE Treaty, initially negotiated and inked in 1990, emerged in the wake of the Cold War’s conclusion and was signed just a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Its primary aim was to impose restrictions on the deployment of military equipment, with the intent of preserving a military balance between NATO and the erstwhile Warsaw Pact nations.
Russia’s involvement in the treaty was initially suspended in 2007, eventually leading to its complete cessation of active participation in 2015. In May 2023, deep into the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which Russia instigated in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree renouncing the pact. This move drew strong condemnation from NATO, which accused Russia of “undermining Euro-Atlantic security.”
The conflict in Ukraine has sparked the most severe crisis in Moscow’s relations with Western nations since the height of the Cold War. Over the weekend, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declared that relations with the United States had deteriorated to unprecedented depths.
The Russian foreign ministry reflected on the CFE Treaty’s origins, noting that it was established at the close of the Cold War, during a time when the formation of a new framework for global and European security, built on cooperation, seemed feasible, with sincere efforts made towards that goal. However, the ministry contended that the expansion of NATO by the United States prompted alliance nations to openly circumvent the treaty’s restrictions, rendering the original CFE Treaty out of touch with current realities.