MOSCSOW, August 17 (AVN) - A group of Budeswehr military experts is making surveillance flights over the Russian installations east of the Urals in the framework of the Open Sky Treaty, a source in the Defence Ministry national nuclear threat reduction centre told the Military News Agency.
The German military delegation comprising 20 experts is headed by Major-General Hans Otto Hubner. The delegation is accompanied by a group of Russian officers headed by Lieutenant-General Vyacheslav Romanov, chief of the centre. In accordance with the agreement, the flights are made on the Russian TU-154MLK-1 military plane fitted with appropriate equipment. The plane takes off from the Ulan-Ude airfield.
The air monitoring of the installations will last until Friday. Its main aim is to control the Russian military activity in the region in accordance with the Open Sky Treaty signed in Helsinki on March 24, 1992 by 27 states including the USA and Russia. Although the Russian State Duma lower house of parliament has not yet ratified the treaty, the military inspection trips to the country are effected by means of bilateral agreements, the source added.