US formally withdraws from Open Skies Treaty that bolstered European security

[barbos]

It's all started when Russia upgraded their plane and US realized that upgrade will make them see much better. "Russia is not complying" is an excuse. First, US complains Russia is flying over Trump properties, as if they can't fly wherever they want (they can). Second, they complain US can't fly wherever they want. It does not compute.

Observation flights may only be restricted for reasons of flight safety and not for reasons of national security

I am pretty sure both sides could make it look like it's flight safety and not the security.

In any case, the reason for US exit is that they feel that Russia gets more out of this treaty than US.
And US expects remaining countries which are all US allies will share their data with them, which, by the way, is forbidden by the treaty, but we all know that there is no way for them not to share.
Bottom line, Russia lose a lot, whereas US lose nothing from this withdrawal.

My understanding is that Russia wasn't allowing flights looking at their border wars.

Yes, theirs and yours. US was part of all these wars. It's like during WW2 allowing Hitler to fly over Russia for inspections Why would anybody allow that? And all of that was during Obama and Bush administrations.
Both of them had sense to let it go. But when Russia upgraded their plane, neocons finally decided enough is enough.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

My understanding is that Russia wasn't allowing flights looking at their border wars.

Yes, theirs and yours. US was part of all these wars. It's like during WW2 allowing Hitler to fly over Russia for inspections Why would anybody allow that? And all of that was during Obama and Bush administrations.
Both of them had sense to let it go. But when Russia upgraded their plane, neocons finally decided enough is enough.

In other words, Russia is violating the Open Skies treaty.

 

[barbos]

My understanding is that Russia wasn't allowing flights looking at their border wars.

Yes, theirs and yours. US was part of all these wars. It's like during WW2 allowing Hitler to fly over Russia for inspections Why would anybody allow that? And all of that was during Obama and Bush administrations.
Both of them had sense to let it go. But when Russia upgraded their plane, neocons finally decided enough is enough.

In other words, Russia is violating the Open Skies treaty.

US violated it first. Russians upgraded their plane and US refused its flight over US in 2014. The rest was later.
And according to Pompeo himself the reason for refusal of flight near "war" zone was to confirm independence of these republics, not the security of Russia. I think it's a great excuse and within treaty rules
The only unexplained refusal we have is over Kalinigrad. But that was a time when US was violating missiles treaty themselves. Officially, russians claim there were too many flights over Kalinigrad:

В МИДе объяснили решение ограничить дальность полетов над Калининградом слишком частыми инспекциями в европейский эксклав России, а запрет на полеты вблизи двух грузинских регионов, контроль над которыми был утрачен после войны в 2008 году, - признанием их независимости Россией.