On November 7, 2023, Russia formally withdrew from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). This withdrawal marks the conclusion of a process that had been suspended by Russia in 2007. As a result, the CFE is no longer considered a binding international legal document for Russia. Additionally, Russia stated that it does not currently foresee the possibility of entering into arms control agreements with NATO countries.
Two other agreements related to the CFE, namely the Budapest Memorandum of November 3, 1990, which set limits on conventional weapons for six Warsaw Pact countries, and the Flank Agreement of May 31, 1996, which made modifications to the original treaty, have also ceased to be valid for Russia.
The CFE, originally signed in 1990 by NATO members and six Warsaw Treaty states, came into effect in 1992. Its primary objective was to establish a balance between the military capabilities of the two alliances by imposing limits on the quantities of weapons and military equipment that parties were permitted to possess.
Source – CGTN