ISTANBUL

Russia has formally withdrawn from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), an agreement signed in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall that set limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe and mandated the destruction of excess weaponry.

"The international legal document, the validity of which was suspended by our country back in 2007, has finally become history for Russia," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Monday.

According to the statement, two other legally binding agreements, the Budapest agreement of 1990 and the CFE's Flank Document, which were linked to the treaty, are also withdrawn.

The ministry explained that the treaty was not catering to Russia's interests, claiming that NATO countries began to circumvent restrictions imposed as the alliance expanded.

“Thus, the CFE Treaty in its original form lost touch with reality, and Russia began to strive to adapt it to the new situation,” it said, adding that an adapted agreement was signed in 1999 but it never entered into force.

The US sought to preserve the original treaty and possibly negotiate new concessions from Russia regarding the withdrawal of its troops from post-Soviet countries, it claimed.

The ministry blamed Washington for preventing its allies from ratifying the agreement.

Russia left the door open to dialogue on ways to restore the CFE Treaty's viability by suspending its participation, but the West did not take advantage of this opportunity and instead opted to build its policy on an "anti-Russian bloc basis," it said.

“Russia is finally saying goodbye to the CFE Treaty without regret and with full confidence that it is right. The experience gained during its creation and implementation – both positive and negative – will be taken into account,” it concluded.

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.

It imposed limits on five key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe – tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, helicopters, and combat aircraft – and mandated 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 expansion.

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

Earlier in May, Putin signed a decree denouncing the CFE, almost two weeks after Russian lawmakers approved Moscow’s withdrawal from the treaty.