"[Our] moratorium will only come into force 150 days after Russia gives notice, which means mid-December of this year. Currently Russia is still covered by the Treaty and will honor all its commitments," Sergei Kislyak said.
He expressed hope that Russia's message would be understood by Western countries that have yet to ratify the amended version of the treaty, signed in Paris in 1990 between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
"The problem is that the Treaty was adapted to match a new environment [after the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact] and has not come into force yet," Kislyak said.
"Only Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus have ratified it. Even Ukraine's parliament has failed to do so. So statements that Russia has pulled out are incorrect. On the contrary, it is in our interests to have the treaty adapted to modern realities, and effective on an equal basis for all over the whole territory," the Russian official said.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin declared a moratorium on Russia's compliance with the CFE Treaty on July 14, following a tense extraordinary conference in Vienna, where NATO member states refused to ratify the amended CFE until Russia fully withdrew its troops from Georgia and Moldova, a commitment given by late President Boris Yeltsin in Istanbul in 1999.
