Officials from the Russian Foreign Ministry have asked the US government to reopen airspace and allow flights between the two countries, in another step towards rapprochement between Moscow and Washington.
The ministry said the talks are aimed at “to overcome numerous ‘irritants’ inherited from previous American administrations,” in a reference to the administration of Democrat Joe Biden that imposed sanctions on Russia after the military invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
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The proposed easing of sanctions would benefit US airlines operating between the East Coast and Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India and China.
The closure of Russian airspace was the country’s response to sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and other nations. Since then, US airlines have been taking detours to avoid Russian airspace or canceling services to Asia.
For Russia, it would be the return of an important market for Aeroflot. Before the sanctions, air traffic between the two countries was 600,000 passengers per year and Aeroflot flew to Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington.
A relaxation of the sanctions would represent another turnaround in relations between the United States and Russia since Donald Trump took office for a second term as president.
He has been pressuring Ukraine to accept his terms of negotiations to end the war, which are favorable to Putin.
The new stance reached a climax in recent days, when the United States voted alongside Russia against a UN resolution on Ukraine’s territorial integrity and Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, humiliated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, sparking outrage in democratic nations.
