Russian lawmakers denounce arms treaty with NATO: Parliament head

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russian lawmakers have approved Moscow’s withdrawal from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), the head of State Duma announced on Tuesday.

“Washington and Brussels, obsessed with the idea of building a unipolar world, by moving NATO to the east, destroyed the global security system,” Vyacheslav Volodin said in a message on Telegram.

Volodin said NATO members declared the alliance was being created solely for defensive purposes during its inception, but that the bloc turned out to be “a wolf in sheep's clothing.”

“It only attacked and advanced, brought suffering to people, destroyed states: Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria,” Volodin said, adding that Washington’s transfer of weapons to Ukraine “destabilizes the situation in the world.”

He claimed that the US took these actions in order to maintain its hegemony and that this provokes a “global catastrophe.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also commented on the parliament’s decision, saying that the document lost its relevance for Moscow back in 2007.

Medvedev further said nothing now prevents Russia from placing weapons “where it wants” in order to protect its national interests, also saying Moscow will “maximize” the production of weapons, military and special equipment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree last Wednesday terminating the CFE treaty.

The CFE was a landmark post-Cold War arms control agreement signed on Nov. 19, 1990, in Paris between two military blocs, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, imposing limits on tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, helicopters, and combat aircraft, in addition to mandating the destruction of excess weaponry.

In 1999, an updated CFE treaty was drafted and approved in Istanbul, Türkiye, taking into account new realities such as the Warsaw Pact’s dissolution and NATO’s expansion.

Because NATO countries did not ratify the agreement, Putin suspended Russia's participation in the CFE treaty in 2007.