this week our inspectors on a specially equipped aircraft An-30B will conduct follow-up RAID over the territory of Finland. “The flight will be executed in the period from 17 to 21 August from the airfield the open sky Helsinki Vapaa. The maximum range will be 1400 kilometers,” – said the head of the National center for reducing nuclear danger Sergey Ryzhkov.
He said that “Antonov” with the equipment photos and video will be held at a pre-agreed with the official Helsinki route. All this time, in addition to the Russian inspectors on Board will be Finnish experts. Their task is to ensure that aircraft do not deviate to the side, and international supervisors used their equipment strictly in accordance with the requirements of the Contract.
there are no limits to their capabilities. Signed at Helsinki on 24 March 1992 agreement to allow the inspectors to open skies to photograph and videotape the movement of troops and ships, as well as any object of army and naval infrastructure. The main requirement – that in the pictures recognize the basic types of weapons.
At the time this program was specifically created for non-contact control over the deployment and movement of armed forces. Observers have the right to patrol over land and sea, to record everything that happens down on film. But the land is outside of the predetermined objects and, moreover, to intervene on foreign military bases they are strictly forbidden. For each participating country established a quota of observation flights. Russia is a 42 RAID a year.
the initiator of the project was the United States. They are now put into question the future of the Treaty. This happened after President trump because of his obviously phony claims to Russia, announced the imminent withdrawal from the agreements on open skies. Americans thought that our military do not allow their inspectors to the area of the Russian-Ukrainian border. Then in Washington began to make flights “over the entire Moscow, Chechnya, Kaliningrad” and an aerial survey of the border zone near Abkhazia and South Ossetia. A couple of years ago, the United States even recorded this requirement in the defense budget.
by the way, in Moscow not left without explanation. We openly acknowledged that the complexity in the organization of international monitoring missions in the Caucasus connected with the position of Georgia. What concerns Moscow is ready to compromise, then Russia it is also demonstrated, allowing inspectors the open sky to make raids into the districts of our major military exercises.
Moscow – with their questions on enforcement of the Americans the Treaty on open skies. For example, the perplexing prohibition of the US authorities on the night of our inspectors in the field refueling observer. Still surprised the wholemA a kind of geography of American aerial inspection. The lion’s share of such checks USA falls to Russia and Belarus. While Americans are only two or three times a year appear in the sky the same in Germany or the UK.
it is Known that since the entry into force of the agreements on open skies, participating countries of this Treaty have fulfilled more than 1.5 thousand of the Supervisory raids over the territory of others. Thus from 2002 to 2019, the inspectors from the US flew over Russia 181 times. And our military was inspecting Americans in more than two times at least – 77 times. It turns out that the open skies Treaty is used by US only in order to conduct additional reconnaissance activities in respect of our and Belarusian armed forces.
However, Russia stands for the preservation of the Contract. The same opinion in Europe. Many supporters of open skies and in the United States. Experts say that for America, the exit from these agreements is not so flawed as to its allies. To spy from the heights for the same Russian Americans allow numerous space satellites. The Europeans orbital intelligence means little. If after the US they too will have to abandon surveillance flights, the lack of availability of updated documentary evidence that the movement of our troops in the border areas do not pose a threat, good mood, States of the Old world is clearly not add.
