U.S. Freezes Open Skies Treaty Cooperation with the Russian Federation

The U.S. has frozen Open Skies Treaty cooperation with the Russian Federation and increased funding for defense spending by 2,2% from 700 to 716 billion dollars, Finanz.ru reports. According to the document signed by the U.S. President Donald Trump, the White House will increase the armed forces by 16,000 people, continue modernization of the nuclear triad, allocate $ 6.5 billion for counteraction to Russia in Europe and another $ 250 million for military assistance to Ukraine, and freeze Open Skies Treaty with Russia and will begin withdrawal from Intermediate-Range And Shorter-Range Missiles Treaty. Both agreements concluded after the end of the Cold War are broken by Moscow, the budget reads. Open Skies Treaty, whose participants are Russia and Belarus on the one hand and 32 states on the other, allows to watch flights with photographic equipment and radar sensors. Claims from the United States refer to devices for digital photography, infrared sensors and a synthetic aperture side view radar, as well as the fact that Russia imposes restrictions on flights over Moscow, the Kaliningrad region, Chechnya and the “occupied territory of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. According to the budget, the U.S. suspends program financing until the presidential administration provides the Congress with evidence that Moscow’s position has changed. At the same time, the US president is entrusted to start preparing a response to Russia’s breach of the INF Treaty, an agreement concluded by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachov in 1987, which prohibited the USSR from developing, deploying and testing missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,000 kilometers aimed at European countries. According to the Congress, the actions undertaken by the Russian Federation in violation of the INF Treaty, including the flight-test, production, and possession of prohibited systems, have defeated the object and purpose of the INF Treaty. In light of this the U.S. is legally entitled to suspend the operation of the INF Treaty in whole or in part.  The President of the United States is entrusted to prepare a report until January 15, 2019, which finally determines the position of the administration on the issue if Russia is a defaulter. Additional funding should be allocated to the medium-range missile support program and deployment of additional missile systems to Europe, which are “necessary to protect the US and NATO forces from Russian ground-based missiles that violate the INF Treaty”. Russia also accuses the US of violations. One of its claims relates to launchers of ABM systems, which are already deployed in Romania and will soon appear in Poland. According to the Russian military, they can be used not only for anti-missiles, but also in military purposes. Source: SakhaNews