Russia withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty – RT in Russian
Russia has officially ended its participation in the Open Skies Treaty. The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that without the participation of the United States and Russia, efficiency will decrease – the area of its application will decrease by about 80%, and the number of open skies missions planned for 2022 will decrease. The ministry recalled that the treaty served as a tool for building confidence and security, and also noted that the responsibility for the degradation of the treaty regime lies with the United States, which left the treaty a year earlier.
After the withdrawal of Russia and the United States from the Open Skies Treaty, the effectiveness of the OON will sharply decrease – the area of its application will decrease by about 80%, and the number of open skies missions planned for 2022 will also decrease. This is stated in a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with Russia’s withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty.
On December 18, Russia officially ceased its participation in the Don.
The foreign ministry recalled that Moscow had made a decision to participate in the Don in the interests of international security.
“One of the weighty arguments was the participation of the United States in the treaty, which advocated transparency in the military field, but did not open their territory for the application of confidence-building measures,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Over the past decades, it served as a tool for strengthening confidence and security and contributed to an objective assessment of the military activities of the participating states, the ministry explained. They stressed that the Russian side made every effort to fulfill the Don and leaves it “with the awareness of the great work done to preserve its viability.”
“Unfortunately, all our efforts did not allow us to keep the treaty in the form it was intended by its authors. He fell victim to an internal struggle of influence in the United States, in which the hawks took over. The policy of Washington on the destruction of the previously reached agreements in the field of arms control prevailed, ”the Foreign Ministry noted.
The department recalled that the US withdrawal from the treaty violated the balance of interests, rights and obligations of the participating states.
The Foreign Ministry stressed that Moscow offered options for resolving “two fundamentally important problems – non-transmission of information obtained during the flight observations that is not a member of the OST, and ensuring the implementation of our rights to perform such flights by US military facilities in Europe”, but the proposals were not supported …
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“For a number of participating states, bloc discipline turned out to be more important than the interests of peace and international security. All these circumstances left us no choice. They predetermined Russia’s withdrawal from the treaty, ”the department explained.
“The entire responsibility for the degradation of the treaty regime lies with the initiator of the collapse of the Don – the United States of America,” the Foreign Ministry stressed.
Recall that the Open Skies Treaty was signed in 1992 in Helsinki by more than 20 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with the strengthening of confidence between countries by improving the system of control over military activities. The agreement, in particular, allows free flights of unarmed reconnaissance aircraft in the airspace of countries involved in the Don.
In May 2020, US President Donald Trump announced the country’s withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty, citing Russia’s alleged non-compliance with regulations as the reason. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that Moscow does not see “any reasons that could justify the unilateral actions of the United States to destroy” the treaty. The United States finally withdrew from the treaty on November 22, 2020.
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“A threat to national security has arisen”: Putin submitted to the State Duma a bill denouncing the Open Skies Treaty
Vladimir Putin sent a draft federal law on Russia’s denunciation of the Open Skies Treaty (OON) to the State Duma for consideration. V …
The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized Washington’s attempts to shift responsibility for the destruction of yet another security treaty to Moscow, under the guise of “far-fetched pretexts.”
As noted by the head of the national center for the reduction of nuclear danger.
In May 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a draft federal law on the denunciation of Russia DON to the State Duma for consideration. The lower house of parliament supported the bill on May 19.
On June 7, Putin approved Russia’s withdrawal from the Don.
Military expert Alexei Leonkov, in an interview with RT, notes that the agreement was conceived as a tool confirming that the parties are not preparing for an open military conflict with a friend. After the US left, the expert recalled, Russia tried to come to an agreement with European countries for their safety and expressed its readiness to remain in the treaty.
“However, the European countries did not provide any guarantees, so the very existence of the Open Skies Treaty lost its meaning,” the expert explained.
The specialist expressed the opinion that Russia’s withdrawal from the treaty indicates that the dialogue with European countries on European security issues remains at a low level.
In turn, Professor of the Department of Comparative Political Science Yuriy Pochta notes that the situation with Don is a particular example in the context of the exacerbation of relations caused by the West.
“The situation around international security is aggravating. Ties have also been severed between Russia and NATO. The number of military maneuvers near Russia is increasing. So this is just a private issue in the general context of aggravated relations, ”the expert concluded.