MOSCOW, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Russia's State Duma Monday delayed hearings on a proposed moratorium on the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.
The hearings by the Duma, or lower house of parliament, were delayed from Tuesday until next month, Alexander Kosopkin, the presidential envoy to the State Duma, told RIA Novosti.
Hearings on the proposed bill, sponsored by President Vladimir Putin, were postponed after a tense meeting in Vienna, where NATO member states declined to ratify the amended treaty until Russia withdraws all troops from Georgia and Moldova, a promise made by the late President Boris Yeltsin in 1999.
The 30-member treaty limits Russian and NATO conventional forces and heavy weaponry from the Atlantic to the Urals. Putin has said the terms of the treaty are outdated.
