Moscow. April 27. INTERFAX-Russia's withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty (DON) will be a logical step that will not lead to risks in the field of defense and security, former head of the international treaty Department of the Russian Defense Ministry, retired Lieutenant General Yevgeny Buzhinsky, told Interfax on Tuesday.
"Since the United States, one of the main participants, has withdrawn from the treaty, then we have nothing to do there," he said.
"From a military point of view, it would be completely pointless for Russia to remain a party to the treaty. Withdrawal from the treaty will not carry any risks for Russia, " Buzhinsky said.
"After the US withdrawal from the treaty, Russia is deprived of the possibility of conducting observation flights over American territory. At the same time, it is possible that the United States will ban European countries from Russian observation flights over American bases. Plus, the United States, through its allies, will have access to information about Russia. There is no point in remaining in the agreement for us, " Buzhinsky said.
"There was a hope that the United States would reconsider the decision to withdraw from the open Skies treaty, but, apparently, returning to the treaty is not a priority of the current American administration," the source told Interfax.
As the head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control Konstantin Gavrilov said at the meeting of the 85th session of the Advisory Commission on Open Skies, Russia will withdraw from the DON by the end of May, while maintaining the current status quo.
"The bill on the denunciation of the DON will be submitted by the government to the president in a few days, and then it will be submitted for consecutive consideration in the chambers of the Federal Assembly," Gavrilov said.
The Treaty on Open Skies was signed on March 24, 1992 in Helsinki by representatives of 23 states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Russia ratified the treaty on May 26, 2001. The parties to the treaty may fly over each other's territories in order to control military activities.
On May 21, 2020, the previous US President, Donald Trump, announced that he had decided to withdraw from the DON. As reported in the corresponding statement of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the reason for the US withdrawal from the treaty was the restrictions imposed by Russia on observation flights, including a limit of 500 km for flights of foreign inspectors over the Kaliningrad region, as well as"denial of access for observation flights in the 10-kilometer corridor on the border with South Ossetia and Abkhazia."
