Paris, 6 December  -- Lyubov K. Sliska, First Deputy Speaker of the Duma, criticised the European Union for failing to ratify the 1999 amendment to the 1990 Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty.
 
Addressing the WEU Assembly on 6 December, Mrs Sliska said that Russia was “concerned about a certain stagnation in the military-political aspect of European cooperation”. She made the point that the CFE Treaty amendment had still not come into force, on pretexts that were slender, despite the fact that it was “a key agreement for stability and security”. Russia “has played its part” she asserted. “We have ratified the treaty and are expecting a response from our partners, especially since the Russian base arrangements with Georgia have made the NATO Istanbul commitments obsolete.”
 
Mrs Sliska stressed the importance Russia attached to "joint efforts" with the EU and NATO towards solving general security problems. "We understand that only through external policy interaction with the EU will we be able to avoid clashes in the post-Soviet era, when many countries are orienting their foreign policies towards that of the EU."
 
In reply to questions from the floor, Mrs Sliska said that security in the Black Sea area must be guaranteed, that the withdrawal of all Russian troops by 2008 was on schedule, that negotiations with Iran on its nuclear programme would take place in Russia to ensure development was purely civilian and that Russia had always organised bilateral cooperation on an equal footing. Referring to Poland, she said past attitudes had to be abandoned in order to build good neighbourly relations on the foundation of a common history.
 
She denied that in Russia there was any lack of freedom, either of opinion or of the press, stating on the contrary, that the mass media was "far freer" there than in the EU and that criticism of government at all levels was permitted right up to the President. "I have often criticised the government myself," she added.