Moscow – President Vlad imir Putin threatened Thursday to suspend participation in a key European arms-control treaty, accusing the United States and NATO of destabilizing the region with plans to install parts of an American missile shield in central Europe.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed the concern as “ludicrous” and said Moscow should live up to its obligations under the treaty, which limits the number and locations of military aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear heavy weapons around Europe.
“Our partners are behaving incorrectly, to say the least,” Putin said during his annual state of the nation address. “In case no progress is made during negotiations, I propose to discuss the possibility to end our obligations.”
Withdrawal from the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty between Russia and NATO members would allow Moscow to build up forces near its borders, and Putin’s threat provoked “grave concern” among NATO members, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the alliance’s secretary-general, said at a foreign ministers’ meeting in Oslo, Norway.
A Kremlin spokesman said later, however, that Russia would not pull out if it could reach accommodation with the West. And Russian military experts suggested the threat was a symbolic raising of the ante in the missile-shield showdown more than a sign of impending military escalation. Russia has no actual interest in a buildup of forces because it faces no real military threat and has no plans to launch any attack, they said.
“When we begin dialogue with our foreign partners, we hope that we will get a positive reaction from them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told The Associated Press. If no progress is made, Russian lawyers would begin working out a mechanism of formally imposing the moratorium, he added.
The Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty was signed in 1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the breakup of the Soviet Union, adding the requirement that Moscow withdraw troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia.
Russia has ratified the amended version, but the U.S. and other NATO members have refused to do so until Russia completely withdraws. In his speech to parliament and government officials, Putin accused NATO members of taking advantage of the situation to build military bases near Russia’s borders.
