Putin, Russia Freeze NATO Arms Pact Day Before National Election

Russian President Valdimir Putin signed a law suspending Russia's involvement in the NATO Arms Pact, threatening to quit the accord entirely on December 12. Russia contends that the 2004 NATO expansion into Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic States provided the military alliance with far too much influence along its borders and has thus gone back against the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty.

The CFE, signed at the tail end of the Cold War in 1989, details the amount of troops and certain types of armaments that are allowed in proximity to the Russian border. Originally, the CPE was signed between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries, but as the governments of Eastern Europe have moved increasing towards the west, the treaty's borders have moved closer and closer to Russia. It is now at the point where the Russians are unable to currently move soldiers and equipment within certain areas of their own border without violating the treaty. Putin and the Russians also claim that becasue of increasing NATO troop presence in the expanded alliance that the NATO countries are actually in violation of the treaty's rules.

Putin's move to suspend Russia's involvement in the CPE comes as no surprise just prior to a domestic election that will likely place even more control into the hands of Putin's United Russia party. The move is likely to be popular with the Russian people: "Polls show that talking tough about Russia standing up to foreigners strikes a chord with millions of Russians who yearn for the return of the Soviet Union's once-mighty superpower status." This is a trend that opposition leaders, including the recently released Gary Kasparov, view as very troubling.