Russian military inspectors to monitor British military facilities

On August 5-9th a group of Russian military inspectors will conduct an air monitoring of the British military facilities within the framework of the Treaty on the Open Skies (TOS). The group, which has been sent to Britain for this purpose, consists of 11 inspectors, the Russian Defence Ministry reported.

"This is the first so-called quota flight of the Russian inspectors within the TOS framework," a Defence Ministry spokesman said. "The flying program will be conducted on board an An-30 airplane, equipped with modern air photo-shooting units." The Treaty on the Open Skies was signed on March 24, 1992 in Helsinki and was put in force on January 1st, 2002. On April 18th, 2001 the Treaty was ratified by Russia. At present, 27 countries are party to the TOS.

The Treaty enables its member-countries to make surveillance flights over each others' territories in order to monitor military activities.