Russia under the Treaty on open skies will conduct Observation Flights over Latvia and Lithuania, said the head of the national Center for reducing nuclear threat Sergei Ryzhkov.

"in the framework of implementation of the international open skies Treaty, the Russian team of inspectors is planning to perform sequential Observation Flights on the Russian plane An-30B over the territories of Latvia and Lithuania," He said.

The flights will be performed from 20 to 25 July with the open skies airfields Riga and Siauliai with the largest range of 800 and 715 miles respectively." This is the 23rd and the 24th Observation Flights of the Russian Federation on the territories of States parties to the Treaty in 2015, " said Ryzhkov.

according to his statement, the Russian observation plane will Fly according to the agreed with the observed parties routes, and Latvian and Lithuanian Experts on Board will keep under control the order of use of the equipment and compliance with the provisions of the Treaty.

Sightseeing Flights are performed to aid greater openness and transparency in military activities and to enhancing security through confidence building measures.

The Treaty on open skies was signed in 1992 and became one of the measures to strengthen confidence in the European Union after the Cold war. It's been around since 2002 and allows the participating countries to openly collect information about military forces and activities of one another. The Contract includes the vast number of NATO countries, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and neutral Sweden and Finland. Usually the Flights Russia and NATO countries are conducted on a reciprocal basis.

sections: Politics