Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law denouncing the Open Skies Treaty (OST). The document was published on Monday on the official portal of legal information.
On May 19, the law was unanimously adopted by the State Duma. The Federation Council had originally planned to consider the document on the same day, but the discussion of denunciation was postponed. The upper house followed suit on June 2 as the chamber unanimously approved the measure as well.
On May 27, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman notified Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov about Washington’s decision not to rejoin the treaty.
According to Ryabkov, Moscow is not going to change its position on withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty in favor of Washington.
Last November, the US officially withdrew from the treaty, explaining its decision by the fact that Russia had allegedly violated several provisions of the OST. In January, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the beginning of the domestic procedures to withdraw from the treaty, and then the Russian president submitted a bill to the State Duma on the denunciation of the treaty. Recently Moscow has repeatedly stated that the chance of preserving the agreement is minimal, and the denunciation process will take several weeks.
The treaty gives participating states the right to overfly any of each other's territories to observe military activities, according to quotas for observation missions agreed and stipulated therein. It also regulates the conduct of flights, defines the mechanism for monitoring compliance with the treaty, contains requirements for aircraft, and limits on the composition and technical parameters of surveillance equipment.
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Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS