Russia's President Vladimir Putin speaks during a televised question-and-answer session in Moscow Oct. 18, 2007. (Xinhua/AFP File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    MOSCOW, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed the federal law temporarily suspending Russia's obligations to the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, the Kremlin press service said on Friday.

    The law unanimously approved by both houses of the Russian parliament will become effective on Dec. 12.

    The suspension of the CFE treaty meant that Russia would temporarily stop providing information, receiving international inspectors and allowing inspections. During this period, Russia will not be bound by any commitment to conventional armaments.

    Russia sees the existing CFE treaty as outdated since it does not reflect the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the breakup of the Soviet Union or recent NATO expansion.

    The suspension of the operation of the treaty does not imply withdrawal from it, but it freezes Russia's compliance with the treaty, Leonid Slutsky, first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on international affairs said earlier.

    "It will become an indicator of Russia's seriousness to defend the interests of ensuring its defense capability without compromise, including as response to U.S. plans to field missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe," Slutsky said.

    Having signed a decree on Russia's moratorium on CFE in July, Putin said in an explanatory note to the bill that Russia's decision to suspend the CFE treaty was "prompted by the fact that the treaty no longer meets military and political realities in Europe and therefore does not duly protect the Russian Federation's security interests."

    The CFE, signed by 22 states in Paris on Nov. 19, 1990, represented an agreement between NATO members and Warsaw Pact countries. It was aimed at establishing a balance in Europe by cutting weapons of conventional armed forces.

    The treaty, which came into force on Nov. 9, 1992, limits deployments of tanks and troops in countries belonging to the NATO and the former Warsaw Pact countries in eastern Europe and lays down measures aimed at confidence-building, transparency and cooperation between member states.

    Russia had threatened for several times to withdraw from the CFE when it was at odds with the United States over U.S. plans to install a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.

    At the October talks in the "two-plus-two" format joined by defense and foreign ministers of the two countries in Moscow, Russia and the United States failed to reach any agreement on missile defense in Europe after Russia refused to give in to U.S. missile defense and CFE demands.

    Moscow, by introducing a moratorium on the operation of the CFE treaty, does not aim to damage arms control, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency on Nov. 7 as saying.

    "We're not aiming to cause any damage to arms control, but wish to give an impulse to the restoration of CFE's viability," Kislyak said at the State Duma, lower house of the Russian parliament.

    "It was a decision of necessity to impose a moratorium on operation of the treaty -- a clear signal to the partners that all the parties -- not only Russia -- must meet their commitments," he said, adding that "western partners begin to take more seriously what Russia is telling them."

    "However to secure a way out of the present situation (with the CFE), the signatories of the treaty, the NATO countries in the first place, must take a number of important steps, and, in effect, make a political decision which gives satisfactory answers to the questions raised by Russia," Kislyak said.

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