Russia officially withdrew today, Tuesday, from a historic security treaty that imposed restrictions on key categories of conventional armed forces and held the United States responsible for undermining security in the post-Cold War era by expanding NATO. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe of 1990, which was signed a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, placed verifiable limits on categories of military equipment that NATO and the then-Warsaw Pact could deploy. The treaty aimed to prevent either side of the Cold War from amassing forces for a quick strike against the other in Europe, but it became unpopular in Moscow as it weakened the Soviet Union's superiority in conventional weapons.
Russia suspended its participation in the treaty in 2007 and halted its effective participation in 2015. After more than a year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree invalidating the treaty in May. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Russia officially withdrew from the treaty at midnight, adding that it has now become "a thing of the past."
The ministry noted: "The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was signed at the end of the Cold War when the formation of a new structure for global and European security based on cooperation seemed possible and when appropriate efforts were made." Russia asserted that U.S. pressure to expand NATO led to alliance countries "openly circumventing" the restrictions imposed by the treaty, adding that Finland's acceptance into NATO and Sweden's request to join the alliance signifies that the treaty is dead.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the Cold War. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated earlier this week that relations with the United States are below zero. After Russia announced its intention to withdraw from the treaty this year, NATO condemned Moscow's decision, stating that it undermines Euro-Atlantic security.
