Russia ‘stops’ leaving the Open Skies Treaty

At the plenary session on May 19, the State Duma of the Russian Federation unanimously approved and declared the termination of the Open Skies Treaty.

State Duma Building of the Russian Federation. Photo: Sputnik/Natalya Seliverstova From the morning of May 19, the plenary session of the State Duma began with a discussion on this issue. According to Mr. Vyacheslav Volodin – Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, after summarizing the voting results, the Russian Duma has agreed to terminate the validity of the Open Skies Treaty. A day earlier, the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs also unanimously supported the annulment of the Open Skies Treaty. Before the vote, the official representative of the Russian President, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, presented a report on the situation surrounding the Treaty, stating that the Russian side had given the United States enough time to think about the Treaty. Wish Open Sky. “If Washington is really interested in coming to an exchange of opinions and reconsidering the wrong decision of the previous administration, they can immediately do so,” Ryabkov added. This treaty affording the Contracting States the right to fly over any of each other’s territories to monitor military activity and to conduct such flights on a regular basis has become one of the constructive measures. trust in Europe after the Cold War. The Open Skies Treaty was signed in Helsinki (Finland) on March 24, 1992, and ratified by Russia on May 26, 2001. In May 2020, the United States started the process of withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty, which was completed on November 22. In response to this decision, on January 15, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the promotion of domestic procedures for exiting the Treaty. Russian President Vladimir Putin has transferred to the State Duma a bill on the cancellation of this agreement.