Russia has finally banned NATO aircraft from flying in its airspace

The State Duma of the Russian Federation unanimously denounced today the Treaty on Open Skies (OST), which allowed reconnaissance aircraft of NATO countries to fly over Russian territory, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

The agreement has been in force since 1992. Last year the United States withdrew from it. As Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov explained to the deputies, this is due to the fact that Russia has demonstrated its technological advantages. It conducted the largest number of observation flights among all participating countries. For this purpose, a specialized TU-214 ON aircraft was used, equipped with digital surveillance equipment that was 8-9 years ahead of its Western counterparts.

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“I would like to remind you that the United States was at one time the initiators of this document, and its participation in the Don Treaty was a condition for its entry into force. The United States actively promoted the idea of ​​​​translating this agreement to a digital basis, apparently hoping to realize its technical advantage. And when it turned out that Russia was ahead of them, Washington tried to prevent our aircraft with digital surveillance equipment from flying over its territory,” Ryabkov said.

The United States banned flights of Russian aircraft over Alaska, Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands, encouraging its allies and Stellites - Georgia and France - to commit violations.

Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin believes that it makes no sense for Russia to remain in the Don Treaty along with small countries.

“America is out, who is left? America's satellites are NATO countries. Now they say: let Russia not leave. They want to make overflights, conduct reconnaissance operations, and then transfer all this to the United States. Who's left? It is impossible to fly there. The plane begins to slow down and is already flying to another country. The territory of the US allies is so insignificant that it is necessary not to fly over it, but to go around it by car,” Volodin said.

As Deputy Minister Ryabkov explained, after all internal Russian procedures for the denunciation of the Donation Treaty are completed, notes will be sent to Hungary and Canada. The agreement will expire 6 months after this.

“Hypothetically, during this time the United States could return to the agreement, and then a new diplomatic process would begin. I do not believe in this. If there had been a bias towards returning to the Don in Washington, we would have already had signals from them,” Ryabkov said.

The decision of the State Duma was welcomed by Russian Senator Alexei Pushkov.

“The Open Skies Treaty was concluded as an important confidence-building measure after the end of the Cold War, designed to consolidate a new state of affairs on the European continent. Now the West is waging a new “Cold War” against Russia, there is no memory of trust left, and the agreement, which had mainly political significance, was buried by Washington in the spirit of the times.

NATO countries are passionately playing war games on their borders with Russia and in the Black and Baltic Seas, and the public is more concerned about gender, migrants, sexism, machismo and racism, real or perceived, than the manifestations of the new Cold War and the military threat that , however, has not disappeared, but persists and grows. But only a few people in Europe understand this and think about it,” Pushkov wrote in his Telegram channel.