MOSCOW. March 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The suspension of the Russian delegation's participation in meetings of the Joint Consultative Group on the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) essentially means Russia's withdrawal from this treaty, General Yury Baluyevsky, former head of the Russian General Staff, told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.
"Let's say it simpler: Russia is withdrawing from the CFE Treaty from March 11," he said.
"In 2007, we said we are suspending our participation in the CFE Treaty. It happened when I was head of the General Staff," Baluyevsky said.
"Today, there are objective reasons to make a second step: to suspend, to fully pull out of the CFE Treaty," he said.
"Why? Because our partners in this Treaty, to put it mildly, have given themselves full freedom. Without any expediencies, operative, political or military, they are beginning to deploy troops, first under the guise of training, but I am convinced that they are now creating groups on the territory of the Baltic states and Poland, I am convinced that some of the hardware, if not all hardware, will stay on the territory of these countries," Baluyevsky said.
"What is Russia to do in this situation? Essentially, we should respect ourselves. How do we respect ourselves? We need to say we are ending our participation in the CFE Treaty. This gives us the right to do everything on the territory of our country that we see expedient and necessary in the interests of our defense, national and other security," he said.
According to earlier reports, Alexander Mazur, the head of the Russian delegation on military security and arms control in Vienna, said at a plenary session of the Joint Consultative Group on the CFE Treaty that Russia is suspending its participation in meetings of the Joint Consultative Group.
"Russia has made a decision to suspend its participation in meetings of the Joint Consultative Group beginning March 11, 2015. This makes the suspension of the CFE Treaty declared by Russia in 2007 complete," the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on its website, quoting the statement by Mazur.