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This is the first I have heard of this.

"Doveryai, no proveryai" (trust, but verify) - Ronald Reagan, upon the signing of the IMF Treaty, December 8, 1987

So I'm not sure why. Russian (and before that Soviet/WarPac) military inspectors have been part of just about every arms treaty we've signed with them for the last 30 years. They've been here in the US on-site monitoring compliance with SALT, the aforementioned IMF, START, START II, etc.

Open Skies is just another one of these treaties. Note that we (the US) performs Open Skies flights over THEIR territory as well (using modified EC-135s). And the monitoring crews are bi-national (the article specifically says that our guys are working the equipment with theirs)

I don't see what the big deal is here. This has been going on for a long time, under many treaties, and it's a joint US-Russian effort for which we receive reciprocity. Before getting all spun up people should recall that great Reagan quote ... and realize that it needs to work both ways.