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Russia Given 3 Years to Meet Limits on Arms

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<i> From Associated Press</i>

Russia, which violated a 1990 treaty limiting conventional weapons in Europe, has been given three years to reduce the number of tanks, armored vehicles and artillery near its borders.

Under an agreement reached in Vienna, the number of Russian weapons in the Caucasus and in northern areas around St. Petersburg, which exceed the treaty limits, will be frozen at current levels, U.S. Undersecretary of State Lynn Davis said Saturday.

By May 31, 1999, Russia will slash weapons to meet the 1990 treaty limitations, she said. But those limits will apply over smaller regions than foreseen in the original treaty, thus technically allowing the Russians to concentrate more weapons in a smaller area of territory.

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Davis and other diplomats called the agreement on the complex issue a success, saying it forced the Russians to accept specific limits but acknowledged the security concerns of Russia and its neighbors.

When the 1990 treaty was signed, the Soviet Union still existed. The signatories were the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the now-defunct Warsaw Pact.

Since then, violence has flared across the Caucasus and Russia has waged a bitter war against Chechens seeking independence from Moscow.

“This agreement freezes Russian forces as of yesterday and will bring them down over the next three years,” said Davis, who negotiated the accord with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov.

Mamedov lauded the agreement as one that took account of European realities after the Cold War.

Figures included in the agreement suggest that the Russians will have to destroy or remove 97 tanks, 697 armored vehicles and 22 artillery pieces from its northern and southern flanks by the deadline.

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Davis and conference chairman Frank Majoor of the Netherlands said all 30 nations that participated saw the new agreement as a balance of security interests.

The Vienna conference, which opened May 15, included the 16 NATO nations, the six east European states once in the Warsaw Pact, and eight Soviet successor states: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Kazakhstan.

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