Skrywer: Dan Roodt

The unanimous vote in the upper house Federation Council followed last week’s decision in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, to freeze Moscow’s participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty from December 12.

The 1990 CFE treaty places strict limitations on the deployment of tanks and other military hardware across Europe.

President Vladimir Putin ordered the moratorium on July 13 amid a row over US plans to install an anti-missile shield in eastern Europe.

In a statement, the Federation Council said Russia had been forced to look at suspending the treaty "for as long as all the countries of NATO have not ratified" an adapted version of the accord.

General Yury Baluyevsky, Russia’s chief of the general staff, said the move was "the correct, logical step from the political and military point of view," ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

Responding to Friday’s vote the Western military alliance NATO reiterated earlier criticism it had made.

"Any measure which takes forward the process by which Russia would unilaterally withdraw from the treaty is regrettable," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency said Russia could still return to the CFE if Putin reversed parliament’s decision.

But a NATO diplomat, requesting anonymity, questioned what Russia meant by suspending the treaty, saying it contained no provision for suspension and that Moscow was intentionally muddying the waters.

"Russia’s decision to use the term ‘suspension’ only adds an element of doubt," he said.

"Does this mean the CFE treaty is dead? Nothing is clear. It’s an ambiguous situation that could satisfy both parties," he said.

The treaty’s demise highlights deteriorating relations between Moscow and countries of the Atlantic alliance as Putin’s administration pushes to reassert Russia on the international stage.

"This will be an indicator of Russia’s seriousness in its uncompromising stand on ensuring its defensive capabilities, including in answer to US plans to put anti-missile defences in eastern Europe," State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky told ITAR-TASS.

Last week Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Kolmakov said that plans were being considered for boosting troop deployments on the western flank, something impossible under the CFE.

This is not the first indication of a return to Cold War-style tensions.

Russia has also this year renewed long-distance strategic bomber patrols, threatened to retarget nuclear missiles at European cities, and to withdraw from other bedrock disarmament treaties.

Moscow says the CFE is not working because an updated version agreed on in 1999 has been ratified by Russia, but not by NATO countries.

NATO members, led by the United States, say they cannot ratify the pact because of Russia’s military presence in ex-Soviet Georgia and Moldova.

But for NATO, Appathurai stressed: "NATO countries want to see the adapted treaty enter into force as soon as possible."

Although Russia this week handed over a third Soviet-era base to the pro-Western Georgian authorities, there is controversy over a fourth.

Although Russia says that the base has been decommissioned, Georgian officials are unable to inspect the facility because it is in the Russian-backed separatist Abkhazia region.

Adding to the tension is the growing unease in the West with wide-ranging limitations imposed by Putin on democratic reforms and what critics call Russia’s aggressive use of massive energy resources.

Moscow accuses Washington of interfering in Russia’s backyard and attempting to rule the world as the sole superpower.

Speaking about the decision to quit the CFE, Baluyevsky said: "The US and NATO political leadership hoped that Russia would flinch at the last moment and not take the decision about introducing a moratorium," RIA Novosti reported.