MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The United States accuses Russia of alleged non-compliance with the Treaty on Open Skies but keeps silence on its own violations as well as on the violations of Washington's allies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
"It is not the first time, when the US side repeats a set of trite accusations, alleging that Russia do not comply with the Treaty on Open Skies… Unfortunately, the United States keep quiet about the violations and about the problems with adherence to the treaty on the part of the United States, their NATO allies as well as of other countries 'close' to them," the statement said.
The Treaty on Open Skies was signed in March 1992 and entered into force on January 1, 2002. It became one of the major confidence-building and arms-control measures in Europe after the Cold War. The treaty has established a regime of observation flights over the states that had signed the accord to gather information about military forces and activities.
