Russia’s Parliament votes to scrap Cold War armed forces deal

MOSCOW — The lower house of Russia’s parliament on Tuesday voted unanimously to formally pull out of a key Cold War-era security deal, more than eight years after Moscow halted its participation.

The vote in the State Duma came less than a week after President Vladimir Putin introduced a draft bill on May 10 “denouncing” the Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which aimed to prevent Cold War rivals from massing forces at or near mutual borders. The deal was signed in November 1990, but not fully ratified until two years later.

The Federation Council, Russia’s Kremlin-controlled upper chamber that generally rubber-stamps legislation that the Duma has approved, is scheduled to consider Russia’s pullout from the treaty next Wednesday.

Moscow first announced its intention to completely withdraw from the agreement in early 2015. Since last February, Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine has seen hundreds of thousands of Russian troops pour into the country, which shares a border with NATO members Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary.

On Tuesday, Putin’s designated envoy told the State Duma that NATO countries had “made it impossible” for Russia to remain in the treaty by allowing for the alliance’s expansion into Central and Eastern Europe.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov also described the treaty as “contrary to Russia’s security interests” in an interview published Monday in Parliamentskaya Gazeta, a weekly published by the State Duma.

Ryabkov’s remarks were echoed by key deputies during the parliamentary session Tuesday. State Duma speaker Leonid Slutsky charged that the treaty had “long existed only on paper,” while Andrey Kartapolov, the chairman of Russia’s parliamentary committee, said that it had been rendered obsolete by NATO’s placing of military infrastructure in Central and Eastern European member states.

Ryabkov told lawmakers that completing the withdrawal process would take about six months.

莫斯科——俄罗斯议会下院周二一致投票决定正式退出一项冷战时期的关键安全协议，此前莫斯科已停止参与该协议八年多。

在俄罗斯国家杜马进行投票不到一周前，弗拉基米尔·普京总统于5月10日提出一项法案草案，该草案“谴责”了旨在防止冷战对手在共同边界或附近集结兵力的《欧洲常规武装力量条约》。该条约于1990年11月签署，但直到两年后才获得全面批准。

俄罗斯联邦委员会是克里姆林宫控制的俄罗斯上议院，通常对国家杜马批准的立法予以橡皮图章式通过。该委员会计划于下周三审议俄罗斯退出该条约的决议。

莫斯科于 2015 年初首次宣布打算完全退出该协议。自去年 2 月以来，莫斯科在乌克兰的军事行动已导致数十万俄罗斯军队涌入该国，乌克兰与北约成员国波兰、斯洛伐克、罗马尼亚和匈牙利接壤。

周二，普京指定的特使告诉国家杜马，北约国家允许该联盟向中欧和东欧扩张，这使得俄罗斯“不可能”继续留在该条约中。

俄罗斯副外长谢尔盖·里亚布科夫周一在国家杜马出版的周刊《议会报》上发表的采访中也表示，该条约“违背了俄罗斯的安全利益”。

周二的议会会议上，里亚布科夫的言论得到了几位重要议员的响应。国家杜马议长列昂尼德·斯卢茨基指责该条约“早已形同虚设”，而俄罗斯议会委员会主席安德烈·卡尔塔波洛夫则表示，北约在中东欧成员国部署军事基础设施已经使该条约过时。

里亚布科夫告诉议员们，完成撤资过程大约需要六个月。