tupolev 214
A Russian Tupolev-214 airplane displays the Open Skies markings.
The United States has announced that it intends to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty because of violations of the agreement by Russia.

U.S. media reported that President Donald Trump's administration on May 21 notified the other 34 signatories to the accord that it was giving the six months' notice to leave, as required by the treaty.

The 18-year-old treaty, which includes Russia, aims to increase international stability by allowing signatory states to conduct surveillance flights over one another's territories to observe military installations and other objects.

The White House has accused Russia of violating the treaty, saying Moscow has been blocking the United States from conducting flights over the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad and near Georgia, which are permitted by the agreement.


Comment: Here's an explanation of the violations:
As with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which the administration recently backed out of, Russia hasn't always been a perfect party to the agreement. For years, for instance, they have restricted flights over Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on Poland's border; as well as over Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia. Specifically, in 2014, they announced a 500-kilometer sublimit on Open Skies flights over Kaliningrad and restricted several flights to above 500 km, according to the State Department. They also denied flight access to a ten-kilometer corridor over the disputed region of Georgia, which Russia claims is part of Russia but which the international community recognizes as Georgia. The United States responded by restricting Russian flights over its territory. Engel supports the U.S. restrictions. The State Department has concluded that Russia's moves don't actually present an obstacle to U.S. intelligence collection over the areas. But they did determine that the Russian restrictions violated Article VI of the treaty.

The bigger concern is that Russia gets more out of the treaty than does the United States since U.S. intelligence satellites are better than their Russian counterparts.

In 2016, Adm. Cecil Haney, then-commander of U.S. STRATCOM, testified to lawmakers, "I don't have the Russian intelligence guidebook available to me, but I will say that given the lack of overhead capability that the Russians have, Open Skies gives them a capability to be able to reconnoiter parts of our country and other nations as part of that."

The withdrawal is the latest move by Trump to unilaterally pull the United States from a major global treaty. Last year Washington withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia.

The exit is likely to strain relations with Moscow and upset European allies and some members of Congress.

The concept of allowing Russia and the United States to conduct aerial reconnaissance flights over each other's territory was first put forward by President Dwight Eisenhower in July 1955. But the Soviet Union balked at the idea.

There was no movement toward a treaty until 1989, when President George Bush breathed new life into it. It still took until January 2002 before the treaty entered into effect.