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Russia says no info exchange
with NATO under arms treaty freeze
RIA
Novosti
Friday December 14, 2007
Russia will not provide data on its Armed Forces stipulated
under the CFE treaty at an annual information exchange meeting
on Friday, a Russian diplomatic source said.
The signatories to the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty will
gather in Austrian capital, Vienna, to exchange documents containing
data on the number of main battle tanks, armored combat vehicles,
artillery pieces, combat aircraft and attack helicopters deployed
in Europe.
"Russia's moratorium on its participation in the CFE treaty
makes this information exchange impossible for us," said
a Russian source at the headquarters of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Russia's unilateral moratorium on the CFE treaty came into force
immediately after midnight on Wednesday.
(Article continues below)
"At the same time we do not have plans in the current circumstances
for a massive build-up or concentration of forces on our neighbors'
borders," a foreign ministry statement earlier said.
NATO said in a statement that it regretted Russia's decision
to impose a moratorium on the arms reductions treaty, which the
West regards as a cornerstone of Euro-Atlantic security, and urged
Moscow to reverse its decision.
Moscow considers the original CFE treaty, signed in December
1990 by 16 NATO countries and six Warsaw Pact members, to be discriminatory
and outdated since it does not reflect the dissolution of the
Warsaw Pact, the breakup of the Soviet Union, or recent NATO expansion.
Russia has urged NATO countries to ratify the adapted version
of the treaty, signed on November 19, 1999 and so far ratified
only by Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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