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Russia calls arms meeting with US, European countries

Russia called on Monday for an emergency meeting with the US and European countries to discuss the future of a conventional arms treaty in Europe, which Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended last month and has threatened to withdraw from altogether.

The request for a meeting, which Russia asked to be held next month, could be a step toward scuttling the Treaty on Conventional Forces -- known as CFE -- in Europe.

The treaty, first signed near the end of the Cold War in 1990, was updated in 1999. The ambitions of its first version -- the removal of the huge stockpiles of tanks, artillery and attack aircraft from the anticipated front lines of a conventional battle between East and West -- were largely achieved in the 1990s, before Putin came to office.

The more recent version, signed by the Kremlin at the end of former president Boris Yeltsin's administration but never embraced by Putin, has not been ratified by the West, which seeks to have Russia withdraw its remaining forces from Georgia and Moldova before ratification.

Russia openly supports separatists in enclaves in both nations. The Kremlin has bristled at linking the treaty to further troop withdrawal.

At his annual address to Parliament in April, Putin said Russia was freezing its obligations under the treaty and might nullify the treaty if there was "no progress in negotiations."

That surprise announcement marked another moment in the increasingly strained relations between the West and the Kremlin, which has been angered by Western criticism of Russia's human rights record, the fairness of its elections and its suppression of opposition figures and of the news media.

In the statement on Monday, Russia said it sought a conference to address "serious problems related to the observance of the treaty by NATO nations as a result of the alliance's expansion and their foot-dragging on the ratification of the 1999 agreement."
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