Russia withdraws from the Open Skies Treaty

1 Kazakhstan

The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Aibek Smadiyarov, announced that an international meeting on Syria in the Astana format could take place in this summer in the city of Nur-Sultan. He noted that at the moment Kazakhstan has yet to receive the applications for negotiations from the guarantor countries of the Astana process on the Syrian settlement. The city of Nur-Sultan is awaiting information from Russia, Turkey and Iran. Earlier it was reported that the next talks on Syria in the Astana format will be held in Nur-Sultan, in mid-2021.

2 Russia — Tajikistan

Russia and Tajikistan will create a joint air defense system, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, announced after the negotiations with the head of the Tajik military department, Sherali Mirzo. The parties discussed the joint repelling of the possible threats from Afghanistan, since the situation there is getting worse.

3 The Czech Republic

The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Andrei Babis, stated that the investigation has only one version of the reasons of the explosions in the warehouses in 2014, and that is «an attack by the Russian agents». Earlier the same was announced by the First Deputy Prime Minister, and the Interior Minister of the Czech Republic, Jan Hamacek. On Sunday, the President of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, stated that in addition to the intervention of the foreign intelligence agencies, the investigation team is considering a version of the careless handling of ammo in the warehouses. On Monday, the Czech mass media reported that the Czech Senate may consider the possibility of accusing the President Milos Zeman of treason because of his statements. The Senate claimed that the president has declassified the information on the investigation of the case, which was not subject to the publicity.

4 The USA

The CNN reported that the US State Secretary Anthony Blinken may visit Ukraine, in May. The CCN reported with a reference to a source in the Ukrainian leadership, close to the organization of such visit. The CNN noted that Anthony Blinken’s visit to Kiev will be «a clear signal that Washington continues to support this country, and values Ukraine as an ally’’. Blinken’s visit is planned for several weeks before the Russian-American summit, which is planned for the summer.

5 The USA — Ukraine

The TASS news agency reported that the US State Department, in a response to the statement of the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy, stated that the USA support the Minsk agreements, and consider them to be the basis for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in the eastern Ukraine. Earlier he stated in an interview to the ’Financial Times’ about the need to amend the Minsk agreements, and increase the number of the participants in the Normandy format negotiations — Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France. Vladimir Zelenskiy suggested adding the USA, the UK, and Canada to the list. While commenting on that statement, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, stated that it was a dangerous call.

6 Russia — Austria

Konstantin Gavrilov, the head of the Russian delegation at the Vienna talks on the military security and arms control, stated that Russia will leave the ’Open Skies Treaty’ by the end of May. It was noted that everything is leading to the collapse of the agreement, and Moscow won’t make one-sided concessions. The denunciation law will be presented to the Russian president in the coming days. The ’Open Skies Treaty’ allows the member-countries to fly over the territories of each other in order to control their military activities. The USA was the first to leave the treaty under a far-fetched pretext, and accused Russia of violating the agreement. Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS.