“In general, Russia intends until December 18 of this year.

to fully enjoy the rights and fulfill the obligations of the State Party to the OST, of course, taking into account the real situation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and, unfortunately, so far does not give grounds for particular optimism, "Ryabkov said at the conference of the states parties to the Treaty on open sky.

The text of Ryabkov's speech has been published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, the North Atlantic Alliance said that it deeply regrets that Russia announced its decision to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty on December 18.

In May 2020, the United States launched a withdrawal procedure, which ended on November 22.

In response to this decision, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on January 15 the launch of domestic procedures for withdrawing from the treaty.

On June 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law denouncing the Open Skies Treaty.