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Viktor Bondarev: Russia may give asymmetrical response to US withdrawal from Treaty on Open Skies

10 October 2019 12:45 (UTC +04:00)

Moscow won’t take any decisive action until reports about Washington’s plans to pull out of the Treaty on Open Skies are confirmed, but may provide an asymmetrical response in case of US withdrawal, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Defense and Security Committee Viktor Bondarev told TASS, APA reports.

"These reports haven’t been confirmed yet and the US hasn’t yet moved from words to action, so Russia won’t take any decisive steps for now. If these reports are not fake news, they will be confirmed soon and it will be reasonable for us to provide an asymmetrical response," the senator said. "We gave a tit-for-tat response to US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because it was a bilateral document, but the Treaty on Open Skies was signed by 23 countries, so we won’t succumb to Washington’s trolling and will sacrifice neither regional nor global stability nor our friendly relations with constructive partners to American instigators," Bondarev added.

He pointed out that a short while back, Moscow had conducted observation flights over NATO countries in accordance with the Treaty, providing NATO members with an opportunity to fly over Russia.