After the US, Russian Federation is also withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty (OST)
Authored by Ufuk Güneş
US, under the Trump Administration had started the withdrawing process from the OST. According to the news broadcasted by Sputnik News, Russia also started the withdrawing process. What does this mean? OST was the unique instrument that Russia could observe US military bases located in its own land.
Due to the withdrawal of the US from the Treaty, Russia lost this mean. If Russia stayed in the Treaty then Russian territory would be still open for open skies flights to US allies and thus US could reach data of these flights by means of its allies although it is not within the Treaty provisions. Therefore, because of this risk Russia might have decided to to withdraw from the OST as well.