Today the Duma voted 418-0 in favor of a new law scrapping Russia’s obligations to conform with the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE), an agreement which traces its roots all the way back to Nixon and Brezhnev.

(Photo: AFP)

Nobody should be too surprised: President Putin threatened this moratorium in an April 26th speech as a response to the U.S. plans for missile defense sites in Europe, and now he is putting his money where his mouth is. “I believe that the right course of action is for Russia to declare a moratorium on its observance of this treaty until such time as all NATO members without exception ratify it and start strictly observing its provisions, as Russia has been doing so far on a unilateral basis,” Putin said, referring to the Fifth Expansion members such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia. If approved by the president, the law will take effect December 12, one week after the parliamentary elections. So begins the month-long countdown…