Russia Begins Arms Treaty Freeze

By Jonathan Marcus
BBC News

Wednesday 12 December 2007

Russia has gone ahead with plans to suspend its participation in one of the key arms control agreements dating from the Cold War.

The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty sets limits on troops and weaponry across Europe.

The suspension means Russia is free to move troops without notifying Nato.

Russia is unhappy with Nato expansion and US plans for missile defences in central Europe and says the treaty no longer serves its interests.

The CFE is often seen as one of the most important arms control agreements of the Cold War years.

The agreement set strict numerical and geographical limits on Nato and Warsaw Pact deployments of key conventional weapons systems like tanks, artillery and warplanes.

Now the Warsaw Pact is history.

Accordingly, the CFE treaty was amended. But Russia has long objected to Nato demands that it remove its forces from the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova before the updated agreement can be ratified.

A Russian suspension of the CFE treaty does not mean that armoured battalions are suddenly going to sweep in one direction or another.

Russian Concerns

In practical terms a whole range of inspections and transparency measures intended to bolster mutual military trust will be suspended.

That, arms control experts say, will be a loss.

But this is not fundamentally a dispute about the CFE agreement as such.

Russia's suspension of the treaty is an interesting move since Western governments insist that there is no scope for suspension - they say you either accept the treaty or withdraw from it.

The suspension stems from much broader strategic concerns.

Russia is alarmed at Nato's eastward expansion; at Washington's plans for missile defences in central Europe; and concerned about a whole range of issues where it believes Russia's views are being ignored.

The Russian political calendar also does not help, with President Vladimir Putin and his supporters eager to play up the nationalist card ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections.

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