MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin signed legislation today formalising Russia’s withdrawal from the Open Skies security treaty after Washington quit the key post-Cold War defence accord last year.
Moscow announced in mid-January it was leaving the treaty that allows signatories to carry out unarmed surveillance flights over each other’s territories.
It cited a “lack of progress” on maintaining the treaty after the United States withdrew last year.
The document formalising Russia’s decision was published on a government website this morning.
The decision by the Russian leader comes ahead of a highly anticipated summit between Putin and US President Joe Biden in Geneva next week.
Biden initially signalled his administration could reverse his predecessor’s move to quit the accord, but then confirmed late last month Washington would not revisit the decision.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in response last week there was no reason for the security pact to feature on the agenda at the meeting between Putin and Biden, since the US had made its position on the future of the accord clear.
Russian lawmakers in both the upper and lower houses of Parliament had earlier voted in favour of ending Moscow’s participating in Open Skies.
Members of the accord included countries across Europe, the former Soviet Union and Canada.
Moscow and Washington had long accused each other of breaching the terms of the agreement, and then US president Donald Trump formally pulled the US out last November.
The pact allows members to request copies of images taken during surveillance flights carried out by other members.
A country under surveillance is given 72-hours’ warning ahead of a flight and 24-hours’ notice of the flight path, to which it can suggest modifications. – AFP, June 7, 2021
