Russia will withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty at the end of this year

Moscow-Sana

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Moscow will withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty completely on December 18.

The TASS news agency quoted the ministry as saying in a statement that "Russia has informed all member states of its decision to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, and this will happen on December 18 this year, which also means a simultaneous exit from the group of member states that was formed under this treaty."

On the 19th of last month, the Russian State Duma agreed during a plenary session to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty.

It is noteworthy that the Open Skies Agreement was approved in 1992 in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, by 27 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Today, this agreement includes 34 countries.

Russia signed it on May 26, 2001, but Washington announced in May 2020 its withdrawal from the treaty on the pretext of repeating Russian violations, which Moscow explicitly denied.