With Open Skies Treaty Dead, Russia Kills Post-Cold War 'Open Lands' Deal with U.S.
Days after officially pulling out of the Open Skies Treaty first abandoned last year by former U.S. President Donald Trump, Russia has nixed another post-Cold War bilateral agreement allow free travel for one another's officials within their respective host nations.
An order terminating the "Open Lands" memorandum of understanding, signed by Washington and Moscow nearly three decades ago after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, appeared Thursday on Russia's official online legal portal. The document was dated June 9, 2021, and signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who instructed the Foreign Ministry to "inform the American side of this decision."
The deal, signed June 17, 1992, shortly after Open Skies was established that March, allowed for the mutual opening of the former rival nations to permit travel by U.S. personnel across Russia and Russian personnel across the United States.
The easing of such prior restrictions was hailed at the time yet another triumph in burgeoning U.S.-Russia relations in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse. Today, however, the two nations once again find themselves locked in a geopolitical competition that has eroded agreements, including nuclear weapons treaties, forged in past decades.
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