Russia withdrew from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. What does it mean for global security

Russia finally withdrew from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which was signed at the end of the Cold War in 1990 in Paris. Then it was an attempt to form a new architecture of global and European security based on cooperation.

This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This treaty limited the number of weapons and military equipment for the participating countries. There are five main categories:

• battle tanks;
• armored combat vehicles;
• artillery;
• attack helicopters;
• combat aircraft.

The treaty was effective in the territories from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains, the Ural River and the Caspian Sea, in particular on the islands.

According to the Treaty, the blocs could have the same number of listed weapons. Their total number should not exceed 40 000 tanks, 60 000 armored fighting vehicles, 40 000 artillery units, 13 600 combat aircraft and 4 000 attack helicopters.

Russia accused the United States of the fact that "NATO expansion allowed the countries of the Alliance to openly circumvent the group restrictions of the treaty, and the acceptance of Finland into NATO and the application of Sweden to join the Alliance show that the treaty is dead."

After Russia announced its intention to withdraw from the treaty this year, NATO condemned the decision, saying it undermined Euro-Atlantic security.

• The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was signed on November 19, 1990 in Paris by 16 NATO countries (Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United States, Turkey and France) and six states of the Warsaw Pact (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, USSR and Czechoslovakia) and entered into force on November 9, 1992. The agreement established quotas on the amount of military equipment that the signatory countries could have.
• Russia suspended its participation in this treaty in November 2007, and now has finally withdrawn from it.