The Federal Law denounces the Treaty on Open Skies that was signed in Helsinki on March 24, 1992 and ratified by the Russian Federation on May 26, 2001.
The Treaty helped considerably to strengthen trust in the military sphere.
Russia made a substantial contribution to fulfilling the Treaty, annually hosted and conducted the largest number of surveillance flights. It became the first country to develop digital surveillance equipment and to start using it.
The United States withdrew from the Treaty under a far-fetched pretext, and this seriously upset the balance of interests of states parties to the Treaty that was attained during its signing. This seriously hampered the Treaty’s implementation and undermined its significance for strengthening trust and transparency and also threatened the national security of the Russian Federation.
The Russian Federation decided to withdraw from this Treaty in connection with these circumstances.