Russia will ask permission on Monday to start
flying surveillance planes equipped with high-powered digital cameras amid
warnings from U.S. intelligence and military officials that such overflights
help Moscow collect intelligence on the United States.
Russia and the United States are signatories to the Open Skies Treaty,
which allows unarmed observation flights over the entire territory of all 34
member nations to foster transparency about military activity and help monitor
arms control and other agreements. Senior intelligence and military officials,
however, worry that Russia is taking advantage of technological advances to
violate the spirit of the treaty.
Russia will formally ask the Open Skies Consultative Commission, based
in Vienna, to be allowed to fly an aircraft equipped with high-tech sensors
over the United States, according to a senior congressional staffer, who spoke
on condition of anonymity because the staff member wasn't authorized to discuss
the issue publicly.
The request will put the Obama administration in the position of having
to decide whether to let Russia use the high-powered equipment on its
surveillance planes at a time when Moscow, according to the latest State
Department compliance report, is failing to meet all its obligations under the
treaty. And it comes at one of the most tension-filled times in U.S.-Russia
relations since the end of the Cold War, with the two countries at odds over
Russian activity in Ukraine and Syria.