Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Monday a decree on the formal denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) by Moscow.

Sergey Ryabkov has reportedly been appointed as the President's official representative during Parliament's deliberations over the denunciation of the treaty.

The document is now made accessible through the official legal information portal.

Putin signs the law on Russia's withdrawal from the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty

Russia will now give notice to the Depository (The Netherlands) on it decision to withdraw and the latter shall covene a conference of States Partiea within 21 days on what's next https://t.co/cLV4waoojf pic.twitter.com/SGYVhpShSU

— Oleg Shakirov (@shakirov2036) May 29, 2023

During the final days of the USSR, the CFE accord served as one of the key components of an effort to defuse tensions between NATO and the Warsaw Pact bloc. The agreement, signed in 1990, imposed restrictions on the deployment of conventional troops on the European continent and included the establishment of a number of transparency tools, such as on-site verification inspections.

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Moscow has long argued that the Warsaw Pact Treaty was being undermined by the US-led military bloc's eastward expansion, which included the addition of former Warsaw Pact nations.

Russia declared a partial suspension of the CFE in 2007, citing new NATO members' failure to subject their armed forces to the treaty's stipulated restrictions. In 2015, Moscow completely withdrew from CFE processes, arguing that its continued participation served no purpose.

After the document had been signed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia will feel no consequences as a result of the law, noting that the treaty was already defunct prior to its denunciation. 

“Well, now there shouldn't be any direct ones, because the fact is that it was already … a non-working mechanism and, believe me, not because of the fault of Russia. Here, in this case, the Russian side brought the de facto situation into line. So now there will be no direct consequences,” Peskov told reporters.

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