A NATO F-16 jet buzzed a plane carrying Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu as it flew over the Baltic Sea, but was seen off by a Russian Sukhoi-27 military jet, Russia said on Wednesday, an account partly disputed by NATO.
A video of the incident broadcast on a television channel run by the Russian ministry showed an F-16 flying parallel with Shoigu’s plane at a short distance.
It was not clear to which air force the F-16 belonged.
A Russian Sukhoi-27 fighter jet was then seen inserting itself between the F-16 and Shoigu’s plane before tilting its wings from side to side to show the missiles it is carrying. The F-16 was then seen leaving the area.
NATO said it had tracked three Russian aircraft over the Baltic, including two fighter jets which it said did not respond to air traffic control or requests to identify themselves.
“As is standard practice whenever unknown aircraft approach NATO air space, NATO and national air forces took to the sky to monitor these flights,” a NATO official said.
“When NATO aircraft intercept a plane, they identify it visually, maintaining a safe distance at all times. Once complete, NATO jets break away,” the official said.
The alliance said it had no information about who was on board the planes.
The RIA news agency reported that NATO aircraft had also tracked Shoigu’s plane when he returned later on Wednesday, albeit at a greater distance.
The Kremlin referred questions about the incident to the defense ministry, which did not immediately comment, although it has said that all Russian flights over the Baltic are conducted in strict accordance with international law.
Russian politicians called the episode the latest in a string of “provocations” a day after the Russian defense ministry said an RC-135 US reconnaissance plane had swerved dangerously near a Russian fighter jet over the Baltic and that another RC-135 had been intercepted.
The Pentagon disputed that, saying the US aircraft “did nothing to provoke this behavior” and that the Russian intercept had been unsafe.
In another episode, Sweden on Wednesday said it had called in Russia’s ambassador for talks after a Russian fighter jet on Monday buzzed a Swedish military jet on an electronic intelligence gathering mission over the Baltic.
“The Russian plane’s actions were out of the ordinary ... in terms of the distance between the planes which was at certain times very small,” the Swedish military said in a statement.
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