National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien explains that the US is withdrawing from the Open Skies treaty with Russia because Russia is systematically violating it. bild.de/politik/intern…
2. O’Brien: “We’ll also make some of the equipment, potentially the planes that we use, available to our European partners. But ... we can’t have a unilateral treaty where the Russians fly over Europe and America without hinderance...”
3. “there’s always been an effort to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies and Western Europe and the United Kingdom.... The Russians – whether it’s this treaty or some other treaty – will not be able to drive a wedge between us and our allies. It won’t happen.”
4 “We just can’t stay in treaties where the Russians don’t abide by the terms and we do....the Russians were taking advantage of this treaty–not to just look at military sites, which was the purpose, but to overfly critical government sites in the US and civilian infrastructure.”
5. “the Russians have built up massive numbers of missiles and arms in Kaliningrad which threaten all of our European allies and threaten the Baltic.... we were not able to get overflight under the Open Skies Treaty over Kaliningrad, which we were allowed to under the treaty.”
6. “Russia has turned it [Kaliningrad] into a closed military base bristling with high-tech weapons and missiles. The whole Kaliningrad situation is a lost opportunity for Russia and Europe, and it’s really a shame.“
