2020年5月9日，莫斯科，俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京看着军用飞机飞过克里姆林宫和红场，纪念二战中战胜纳粹德国75周年。在美国国务院的一份机密备忘录中，国务卿迈克·庞贝指责俄罗斯根据《开放天空条约》使用监视飞行来收集美国基础设施的数据，这些基础设施可能会成为“常规武装、精确制导武器”的目标

美国国务院的一份备忘录称，预计美国将于周四告诉北约盟国，美国退出《开放天空条约》，部分原因是担心俄罗斯利用该条约拍摄欧洲和美国的关键基础设施，以确定轰炸目标新闻周刊显示。

根据备忘录，特朗普政府将在周五提供一份为期6个月的退出意向通知。

“经过仔细考虑，包括盟国和主要伙伴的意见，现在已经非常清楚，继续成为《开放天空条约》的缔约国不再符合美国的利益，”国务院告诉记者新闻周刊周四。“从明天起六个月内，美国将不再是该条约的缔约国。但是，如果俄罗斯恢复全面遵守该条约，我们可能会重新考虑我们的退出。”

俄罗斯外交部的一名代表没有回复置评请求。比利时常驻欧洲安全与合作组织代表团的代表也没有这样做。比利时是该条约的执行机构。

纽约时报周四首次报道称，美国计划退出后苏联时代的协议，该协议允许签署国在彼此领土上进行监视飞行，以确保遵守武器控制和其他协议。自该条约于1992年成立以来，已有34个国家签署了该条约。

它是由德怀特·艾森豪威尔总统构想的，目的是减少战争的机会，并在几十年后实施，帮助促成了1500多次飞越。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)周四对记者表示:“我认为我们与俄罗斯的关系非常好，但俄罗斯没有遵守条约，因此，在他们遵守条约之前，我们将退出。”。“我们很有可能会达成新的协议，或者做些什么来重新达成协议。”

伊芙琳·法卡什，前俄罗斯、乌克兰和欧亚国国防部副部长助理，称这一决定是“对我们欧洲盟友的抛弃”

“我们有这些飞越的原因是为了防止战争，”法卡什告诉新闻周刊。“对我们的欧洲盟友来说，这是一次建立信任的演习，他们依靠这些飞行来了解俄罗斯人在做什么，因为他们没有卫星技术。”

奥巴马政府时期负责军备控制和国际安全的副部长的高级顾问亚历山德拉·贝尔(Alexandra Bell)指出了该条约被忽视的一个好处:共同管理的飞越将为美国提供一些关于俄罗斯如何监控美国基础设施的见解。如果俄罗斯在美国撤军后更加依赖卫星数据，就无法收集到这些信息。

周四的举动表明，唐纳德·特朗普总统也可能寻求退出决赛新的《削减战略武器条约》在美国总统就职一周后到期倍报道。

美国经常指责俄罗斯限制或拒绝飞行计划，违反了开放天空协议的条款，最近有报道称特朗普政府将试图退出。

在国务院的一份机密备忘录中新闻周刊被称为“开放天空条约——就美国撤军问题向盟国和合作伙伴提出的意见书”，美国国务卿迈克·庞贝向北约所有成员国以及美国驻波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那、芬兰、格鲁吉亚、瑞典和乌克兰的大使馆发送了谈话要点，列出了撤军的原因。他写道，俄罗斯一再违反协议条款，包括封锁美国在该国的航班。

然而，他还表示，俄罗斯一直在美国和欧洲上空飞行，以捕捉关键基础设施的图像，官员们认为这些图像可能被用来确保它们能够成为“常规武装、精确制导武器”的目标

备忘录称，“这种使用条约图像的行为不仅在《外层空间条约》下是非法的，该条约要求条约获得的图像只能用于实现条约的目的，而且通过将条约从一个建立信任和信心的工具变成一个可以用于胁迫和威胁的工具，这将严重损害条约的中心目标。”。

该文件没有披露庞贝是如何知道俄罗斯人正在识别这些目标的，也没有提供任何信息来证实这一说法。

贝尔说，她不同意庞贝的观点，即俄罗斯涉嫌滥用飞越数据会危及协议。她表示，该条约“并非旨在”解决数据保留和安全问题，这一缺陷需要通过外交手段解决。

“当艾森豪威尔提出这个建议时，是为了让我们所做的事情完全透明，”贝尔补充道。“如果特朗普政府担心俄罗斯人正在以一种有问题的方式使用从开放天空航班获得的信息，那就有讨论的场所。”

美国国务院指责俄罗斯过去阻碍美国航班或阻止进入有争议的领土。美国国防部称，俄罗斯试图对车臣实施最低海拔限制，车臣是俄罗斯的一个半自治领土，长期以来一直是武器走私指控的对象。

在2017年的一份报告中，国务院表示这些限制已经解决。然而，该报告指出了对其他飞行高度限制的担忧，并声称俄罗斯一直拒绝进入格鲁吉亚边境地区。该报告还称，俄罗斯一直在不正当地援引条约中的不可抗力条款，推动偏离已批准的飞行计划。

法卡什承认，俄罗斯阻挠飞越领空的说法“有些合法性”，但警告称，单方面撤军“损害了我们在欧洲的盟友的利益”

根据该条约，在提前三天通知的情况下，任何成员国都可以安排在另一国领土的任何部分进行非武装监视飞行，但须遵守某些飞行配额和设备限制。这包括军用和民用设施上的飞行。

在2012年的一篇专栏文章中，前国务卿乔治·舒尔茨表示，开放天空下的空中监测在解决与核和环境协议相关的核查问题方面发挥了“关键作用”。

舒尔茨写道:“加强和扩大技术收集能力以及国际参与合作空中监测项目的范围符合我们的国家利益。”。

这篇报道已经被更新，包括来自国务院的附加评论。

Russia Uses Open Skies Treaty to Identify Bombing Targets, U.S. Tells NATO

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks at military aircraft flying over the Kremlin and Red Square to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, Moscow, May 9, 2020. In a classified State Department memo, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Russia of using surveillance flights under the Open Skies Treaty to collect data on U.S. infrastructure that could be targeted by “conventionally-armed, precision-guided weapons.”

The United States is expected to tell NATO allies Thursday that it is withdrawing from the Treaty on Open Skies in part because it fears Russia is using the pact to photograph critical infrastructure in Europe and the U.S. to identify targets to bomb, a State Department memo obtained by Newsweek showed.

The Trump administration will provide a six-month notice of intent to withdraw from the treaty on Friday, according to the memo.

"After careful consideration, including input from Allies and key partners, it has become abundantly clear that it is no longer in America's interest to remain a party to the Treaty on Open Skies," the State Department told Newsweek Thursday. "Effective six months from tomorrow, the United States will no longer be a party to the Treaty. We may, however, reconsider our withdrawal should Russia return to full compliance with the Treaty."

A representative for the Russian Foreign Ministry did not return a request for comment. Neither did a representative for Belgium's permanent mission to the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe. Belgium chairs the treaty's implementing body.

The New York Times first reported Thursday that the U.S. plans on withdrawing from the post-Soviet era pact that permits signatories to conduct surveillance flights over each other's territories to ensure compliance with arms controls and other agreements. Thirty-four nation parties have signed on to the treaty since it was established in 1992.

It was conceived by President Dwight Eisenhower to reduce the chances of war and, after its implementation decades later, helped to facilitate more than 1,500 overflights.

"I think we have a very good relationship with Russia, but Russia didn't adhere to the treaty, and so until they adhere to the treaty, we will pull out," President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday. "There's a very good chance we'll make a new agreement or do something to put that agreement back together."

Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, called the decision an "abandonment of our European allies."

"The reason we have these overflights is to prevent war," Farkas told Newsweek. "It is a confidence-building exercise for our European allies who rely on these flights to know what the Russians are doing since they don't have access to satellite technology."

Alexandra Bell, a senior advisor to the undersecretary for arms control and international security during the Obama administration, noted an overlooked benefit of the treaty: That the jointly managed overflights would provide the United States some insight into how Russia monitors U.S. infrastructure. This information could not be gleaned if Russia were to rely more heavily on satellite data following a U.S. withdrawal.

Thursday's move suggests that President Donald Trump may also seek to withdraw from the final New START arms treaty that expires one week after the U.S. presidential inauguration, the Times reported.

The United States has frequently accused Russia of breaching the terms of the Open Skies agreement by limiting or rejecting flight plans, and reports have recently suggested the Trump administration would attempt an exit.

In a classified State Department memo obtained by Newsweek, called "Open Skies Treaty—Demarche to Allies and Partners on U.S. Withdrawal," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent talking points to all NATO posts and U.S. embassies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Georgia, Sweden and Ukraine laying out the reasons for the withdrawal. Russia repeatedly violated the terms of the agreement, he wrote, including by blocking U.S. flights over the country.

However, he also said that Russia had been flying over the U.S. and Europe to capture images of critical infrastructure sites that officials believe may be used to ensure they can be targeted by "conventionally-armed, precision-guided weapons."

"This use of Treaty imagery would not only be unlawful under the OST, which requires that Treaty-acquired images be used only for the attainment of the purposes of Treaty, but it would gravely undermine the central aim of the Treaty by turning it from an instrument for building confidence and trust into one that could be employed for coercion and threats," the memo said.

The document did not disclose how Pompeo knew the Russians were identifying such targets and it did not provide any information to corroborate the claim.

Bell said she took issue with Pompeo's contention that Russia's alleged misuse of overflight data should imperil the agreement. She said that the treaty "was not designed" to address data retention and security, a defect that needed to be worked out diplomatically.

"When Eisenhower proposed this, it was for the purposes of being radically transparent about what we were doing," Bell added. "If the Trump administration is concerned that somehow the Russians are using information gained from the Open Skies flights in a way that was problematic, there are venues to discuss this."

The State Department has accused Russia of impeding U.S. flights or blocking access to contested territory in the past. The department has said that Russia attempted to impose minimum altitude restrictions over Chechnya, a semi-autonomous Russian territory long the subject of arms-trafficking allegations.

In a 2017 report, the State Department said those restrictions had been resolved. However, the report noted concerns about altitude restrictions on other flights and alleged that Russia has been refusing access to territory along the border with Georgia. The report also said Russia has been improperly invoking the treaty's force majeure provisions to push deviations from approved flight plans.

Farkas acknowledged that there is "some legitimacy" to the notion that Russia has obstructed access to overflights but cautioned that unilateral withdrawal "harms the interests of our allies in Europe."

With three days' notice under the treaty, any member state can arrange to conduct an unarmed surveillance flight over any part of the territory of another country, subject to certain flight quotas and restrictions on equipment. This includes flights over both military and civilian installations.

In a 2012 op-ed, former Secretary of State George P. Schultz said aerial monitoring under Open Skies played a "key role" in addressing verification issues related to nuclear and environmental agreements.

"It is in our national interest to strengthen and extend both the technical collection capabilities and the scope of international participation in cooperative aerial monitoring programs," Schultz wrote.

This story has been updated to include additional comments from the State Department.