In Russia and in the United States, they again started talking about the reactivation of the Open Skies Treaty, which was completely on its way.
The US State Department said that they are discussing this topic and will soon decide.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed this issue with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, currently chairing the OSCE, Anne Christine Linde, and said that if the United States returned to the treaty, Russia would react constructively to this turn.
What is behind these words?
The Open Skies Treaty was signed in a completely different era, in 1992, and came into force ten years later, in 2002.
Under this agreement, the participating countries can fly over the territories of other participating countries and monitor their military preparations, so that the situation becomes clearer and more transparent, so that the parties are not afraid of an unexpected attack and can trust each other more.
And they began to fly.
The United States has flown over Russian territory many times (almost 200 times).
They flew especially tightly during the Donbas crisis, but after that they continued their flights.
Russia also flew over US territory (about 70 flights over the years), only the US did not allow Russians to fly over Hawaii (and other American islands) and over Alaska (with the exception of a few places).
President Trump did not see the point in this agreement at all, because, he said, American satellites see more than planes can see.
Therefore, he withdrew the United States from the treaty in November 2020, after the elections, but before the transfer of power to Biden.
Russia did not immediately respond to the US withdrawal from the treaty, but it soon became clear that an intolerable situation was developing.
Europeans flew over Russia, photographed everything and passed the results to their American NATO partners.
Moreover, they banned Russian aircraft from flying over American military installations in Europe.
So Russia remained on the beans - it could not fly over America, could not observe American bases in Europe, but was forced to let European planes into its airspace.
The pleasure of flying in the skies of Sweden and Finland, really, was not worth such a price, especially since Russia also has satellites watching what is happening in the world without any agreement.
The Europeans wanted to keep the treaty because the Americans did not share satellite data with them, and the Europeans did not have such satellites.
They flew over Russia and generously shared information with Washington.
Russia tried to remind the Europeans that under the treaty it is forbidden to transfer the footage to a country that is not a member of the treaty, that is, the United States, but there was no benefit from this.
The Americans are in all European bases, and the Europeans are afraid to quarrel with them and are not going to.
Russia had to declare its intention to withdraw from the treaty, on which this treaty would have ordered a long life.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden and his team came to power.
At one time, they condemned Trump's decision to withdraw from the treaty and were expected to turn by 180 degrees.
But it was not that easy.
Biden has a lot of urgent matters, and the contract did not seem very urgent to them.
And how can you get back to the contract?
Join again?
It needs to be ratified again, and then the Republicans - Trump's party - will probably vote against.
Another option is to come up with a scheme according to which the United States will enter into the treaty without ratification, but will fulfill all the conditions.
Then Russian planes will be able to fly over American bases in Europe and over the very territory of America.
But first, the US must express its will to do so.
However, this has not happened yet.
During a meeting in Moscow, Lavrov explained to Ms. Linde that Russia has not yet withdrawn from the treaty and has not even officially informed the other parties of its intention to withdraw from the treaty.
Russian representatives spoke about this, but preliminary.
So now it is enough for Russia to postpone an official statement and wait a little longer, giving the United States a chance to save the treaty.
So it will apparently be.
Whether this will help save the contract is not certain.
Trump did not appear from scratch;
he voiced the reluctance of the American military to accept any restriction on its freedom of action.
In recent days, the Pentagon is increasingly talking about the high likelihood of a nuclear war with Russia, which previously seemed impossible.
The United States plans to resume underground nuclear weapons testing, closing an entire era when they were banned.
But the White House is afraid of breaking into a nuclear conflict, so the START (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) was renewed - a few days before its expiration.
Russia wants to preserve the architecture of mutual checks and, therefore, meets the Americans halfway.
Let's see if Russian peacefulness will help this time.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.