Relations between Russia and the US have been tense due to President Joe Biden's placing blame on Moscow for election intervention and cyber-attacks that were vehemently denied.
No expectation from the summit
One of the actions that are done before the Geneva Summit is repudiating Open Skies last January before meeting with the US leader. The head of the Kremlin invited Biden to a debate after he was called a "Killer," but the American leader declined the challenge.
Both countries have issues on the unarmed monitoring flights which prompted former President Trump to leave the treaty, which the current administration continued despite risks not to continue it, reported Aljazeera.
Despite the dim view Putin has on the current US administration and the current president, there is a hope that Biden will shed his "current tough guy stance," and start the discussion about the treaty when they meet in the Geneva Summit.
The new US administration gave notice way before the expected summit that its withdrawal has been decided, and will stay out of the treaty.
According to the Kremlin last Monday, not giving a second chance to discuss the treaty has made an imbalance of interests for all treaty members, so Russian is leaving the agreement.
An exact statement from Moscow was mentioned by NBC News, "This undermined the Open Skies Arms Control Treaty enforcement and its significance in building accountability and confidence, posing a risk to Russia's national security."
Biden's decision to ignore Russia's suggestion may affect the check and balance of nuclear weapons. Putin was more than willing to discuss and get something done to restart the agreement.
Did Russia violate it?
At the time, a Kremlin spokeswoman stated that the US can still collect information from its NATO allies underneath the pact.
Nevertheless, US reports indicate that Russia had breached the treaty by restricting US overflights above Georgia and the Russian region of Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast.
The pact, which was ratified in 1992 and took effect in 2002, allows nations to undertake unarmed observation flights across the whole territory of other members at a short notice to acquire data on opposing military assets.
Its member are several European nations, Russia and Canada who are obliged under the pact.
A backgrounder on the US decision to back out
Former President Donald Trump carried on his plan to withdraw the United States from the Treaty on Saturday, but it appears that Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who opposed Trump's decision, may have a path to revive the treaty, cited Defense News.
The Air Force could take months to finish the legal and regulatory procedures involved to deactivate the Boeing OC-135B planes used to conduct the treaty mission from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., it seems the Biden administration has plenty of time to change its mind about the Open Skies Arms Control Treaty.
