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NATO alarmed as Russia suspends CFE arms treaty
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 13 12 07NATO and a European security body expressed alarm Wednesday after Russia walked out of a Cold War treaty setting limits on troops and weapons across the continent.
Moscow froze compliance with the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) as of midnight (2100 GMT Tuesday), meaning that Russian troops can be redeployed anywhere without notifying NATO.
The Foreign Ministry offered reassurance that Russia had "no current plans to accumulate massive armaments on our neighbours' borders."
Signed in 1990 and modified in 1999, the CFE places precise limits on the stationing of troops and heavy weapons from the Atlantic coast to the Ural mountains -- a mammoth agreement that helped resolve the Cold War standoff.
Moscow's step drew fire from the West, which is increasingly at loggerheads with President Vladimir Putin's resurgent Russia.
"NATO allies deeply regret that the Russian Federation has proceeded with its intention to unilaterally 'suspend' implementation of CFE," a statement from the alliance said.
NATO "at this stage" has no plans to retaliate and will continue to observe CFE rules, it added.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the continent's top security watchdog, criticised Moscow for undermining "a cornerstone" of efforts to reduce tensions in Europe.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship of the OSCE, said the treaty suspension was "not good news."
Putin, who has made a priority of restoring Russian military might, signed the decree ordering Moscow's suspension last month, but it only took effect Wednesday.
The Foreign Ministry said the suspension was prompted by "exceptional circumstances" and that Russia was no longer "constrained by the limitations placed on arms deployments on its flanks."
In theory, Russia can return to the CFE, but analysts say that is unlikely, given the complex disputes at the heart of the treaty and mounting East-West tensions.
"The treaty is dead," military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said in Moscow.
Moscow is also threatening to leave the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty amid tensions linked to a planned US missile-defence shield in NATO members Poland and the Czech Republic.
Russian complaints about the CFE centre on NATO's failure to ratify an amended 1999 version of the treaty that took into account the huge geopolitical changes wrought by the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
NATO countries respond that they cannot ratify the 1999 version because a Russian troop presence in ex-Soviet Georgia and Moldova violates the treaty, a charge Moscow rejects.
In addition, Moscow has been pushing for changes to CFE limits on moving troops to the European, western flank of the vast country.
"Imagine that President (George W.) Bush cannot move his forces from California to the New York region," Anatoly Antonov, head of the Foreign Ministry department on security, told journalists last week. "It's ridiculous."
Russia also wants Baltic countries such as Estonia, once part of the Soviet Union and thus of the Warsaw Pact, to join the CFE.
Last week Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko gave a mixed message about possible changes in troop levels.
"Russia has no plans to raise its military presence in Europe, obviously, that is, if there is not an attempt to raise the military presence by NATO countries," he said.
Felgenhauer said, "it is practically inevitable that Russia will begin moving weapons west, primarily to borders of Baltic states."
Story by Sebastian Smith from AFP
AFP 121615 GMT 12 07
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