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Russian planes fly along Japanese & Norwegian borders

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February 15, 2001 

MOSCOW-- (AP) - The Russian military held air exercises near two neighboring nations Wednesday, demonstrating its might and eliciting a strong protest from Japan.

Japan's defense agency said Russian military planes twice violated Japanese airspace, and the Foreign Ministry called in a Russian diplomat to protest.

Russian bombers also flew along Norway's coast in what officials there called an unusual event, but they remained in international airspace.

Russian officials insisted there was nothing illegal or unusual about either exercise.

"We fly without violating anything," said Air Force spokesman Alexander Dobryshevsky. "We don't complain when every day a dozen NATO planes fly along our shores."

He said Russia was ready to present "objective evidence" proving that the planes had not entered anybody's airspace.

Some military analysts said Wednesday's flights were part of a pattern of increased air activity aimed at showing off Russian military might.

"Russia has sharply increased test flights of its planes since NATO's campaign in Kosovo," said Alexander Pikayev, a military analyst at the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office. "The military wants to show that it's too early to write Russia off."

In October, Russian fighter jets buzzed a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan. The Russian military has also stepped up flights around the country's northeast corner, across the Bering Strait from Alaska.

Two bombers flew down the Norwegian coastline in 1999, while another two were intercepted by U.S. fighter jets near Iceland.

"Whether they violated airspace of not, that's not the key thing," said Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst. "They were demonstrating the rebirth of Russia's military might."

Pikayev said Wednesday's exercises may also be a response to recent signals from Washington that Russia no longer occupies a privileged place in U.S. foreign policy.