OSLO, 27 April 2007 — President Vladimir Putin froze Moscow’s commitments under a European arms control pact yesterday, escalating a row between the United States and Russia over US plans to build a missile shield in eastern Europe.

Putin’s announcement came hours before NATO and Russian officials were to discuss a project which US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted was no threat to Moscow, brushing off such Russian concerns as “purely ludicrous.”

Asked to comment on Putin’s move to suspend Russia’s implementation of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) pact negotiated in the months after the end of the Cold War, Rice insisted Moscow fulfill its commitments under the treaty.

“These are treaty obligations and everyone is expected to live up to treaty obligations,” Rice told a news conference in Oslo ahead of a meeting of NATO and Russian foreign ministers.

NATO expressed grave concern at Putin’s decision. Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed to NATO ministers Putin’s announcement suspending Russia’s implementation of the CFE pact.

“That message was met by concern, grave concern, disappointment and regret,” de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference. “The allies are of the opinion that the CFE is one of the cornerstones of European security,” he added.

Minutes later, Lavrov defended the Russian move at a separate news conference. “I think that we cannot be unconcerned by the fact that NATO military infrastructure is creeping up to our borders,” he said.

Lavrov said Russia had been complying with the treaty and it was time for NATO to show it was serious about it, warning: “Unless our partners do that we will withdraw from the treaty.”

Making his last state of the nation speech in Moscow, Putin announced a freeze of Russia’s commitment to the treaty until all of NATO’s current members ratified it. “It would be appropriate to announce a moratorium on Russian adherence...until it has been ratified by all NATO countries without exception,” Putin said.

The president said Washington was exploiting difficulties with the CFE to expand missile defense facilities into central Europe. “Our partners are conducting themselves inappropriately to say the least,” he said. “They are using the complicated situation to expand military bases near our borders. Moreover, they plan to locate elements of a missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.”

The CFE treaty was signed in 1990 by the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the former Warsaw Pact to limit military hardware in the region. It was adopted in Istanbul in 1999 following the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, in order to limit deployments on a country-by-country basis.

But NATO states have refused to ratify the new pact on the ground that Moscow has failed to honor commitments made in Istanbul to withdraw Russian forces from the ex-Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova.

Putin’s insistence that all countries ratify the CFE appeared particularly aimed at the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which were once part of the Soviet Union and are not part of the treaty. Putin said there was no connection between ratification and the issue of Russian troops in Georgia and Moldova, which he said Moscow was working to resolve anyway.

An unnamed Kremlin official was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that Russia wanted Western countries to ratify the revised treaty within a year.

Ahead of the Oslo meeting, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier voiced concern at the tensions, reflecting Berlin’s ties with both Washington and Moscow.

“It’s important to prevent a spiral of mistrust between Russia and the United States,” Steinmeier said.

But speaking to reporters in Oslo, Rice was sharply critical of Russia’s stance on Washington’s missile defense plans, which involve placing a radar system in Poland and interceptor rockets in the Czech Republic. Washington says the missile shield is not aimed at Russia but intended to protect Europe against countries such as Iran and North Korea.

“The idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars in eastern Europe are going to threaten the Soviet strategic return is clearly ludicrous and everybody knows it,” Rice said. “The idea that somehow you can stop the Russian strategic nuclear deterrent with a few interceptors just doesn’t make sense,” she said.

NATO chief de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance remained committed to ratifying the adopted CFE treaty but said that the issue of Russian troops in Georgia and Moldova remained a hurdle.

The testy rhetoric reflected increasing tension over NATO’s enlargement into territory once part of the former Soviet Union and Washington’s championing of countries such as ex-Soviet Georgia.

Arriving in Moscow on a four-day visit, the Czech president told Itar-Tass news agency that Russia had been kept fully informed of the missile defense plans and that they posed no threat.

He also told Kommersant newspaper there was little chance of Prague pulling out of negotiations with Washington on Czech involvement.