MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) - The denouncement of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) will send a message to NATO members that Russia no longer views them as partners with capacity to agree, State Duma Defense Committee Chairman Andrei Kartapolov said.
"This is our message to the West that neither the United States nor NATO members remain partners with capacity to agree, whose stance we take into account," Kartapolov told reporters on Tuesday.
"Today, we see a drastically different picture, 16 NATO members that existed at the moment when the treaty was signed have evolved into 31 and their infrastructure has moved very close to our borders," he said.
The Western "partners" have recently increased the number of tanks by almost 3,000, from 19,000 to 22,500, and the number of armored combat vehicles has grown by almost 5,000, Kartapolov said.
"We are not going to be a part to a treaty that does not ensure our national security," he said.