Senator Alexey Pushkov called the Treaty on Open Skies unviable after the US withdrawal from the agreement.
"There will, of course, be no "strict guarantees" from NATO that the US will refuse to transmit data obtained by its allies under the alliance <...>. On the other hand, we can firmly expect that the data will be transmitted immediately to Washington. That's guaranteed," he wrote on Twitter.
The politician underlined that statements of American allies about their adherence to the agreement don't cancel their special relations with Washington. Pushkov added that it was impossible to trace secret data transmission.
On the night of November 22, the US completed the procedure of withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that neither European security nor the security of the United States and its allies had benefited from that. The diplomats called the position of Washington hypocrisy and a gallery play. Moscow will seek firm guarantees from the remaining 34 participants of the OST that they will not pass on to the US photos of Russian territory. Dmitry Peskov, the president's press secretary, also said that the US withdrawal made the treaty unviable.
This agreement was signed in 1992 and came into force in 2002. It is one of the post-Cold War confidence-building measures in Europe, a document that allows member states to openly gather information about each other's armed forces and activities.
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Photo: Federation Council
Based on materials from RIA Novosti