Cat and mouse games echo Cold War?
Daily Telegraph
6th September 2007
www.telegraph.co.uk
The dangerous game of cat and mouse being played out in airspace protected by Britain has been provoked by Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to attempt to re-assert his country's military prowess.

In what amounts to a re-enactment of Moscow's Cold War strategy, Mr Putin last month announced that he had given the order for Russia's fleet of nuclear strike bombers to resume their patrols throughout international airspace.

This resulted in the Russian Defence Ministry's announcement that fourteen strategic Tupolev 95 Bear bombers had commenced routine patrol operations over the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic. The Russians are quite within their rights to conduct such missions, which can be useful for maintaining or up-grading their defence capabilities.

Nato bombers regularly conduct such missions, although they generally confine them to Nato-controlled or neutral international airspace.

But the Russian exercises, which are probably designed as much to test Nato's air defence readiness as to improve the operational effectiveness of Russia's nuclear bomber fleet, are nevertheless fraught with danger as they are being undertaken against a background of mounting tensions between the West and the Kremlin.

In one of the worst incidents during the Cold War, the climate of mistrust led to the Russian air force shooting down a Korean Air Lines jumbo jet in 1983, with the loss of 269 lives.

In the latest incident a fleet of eight Tupolev aircraft were detected flying in a loose formation of four pairs and heading for international airspace that is regularly patrolled by Nato.

Initially they were intercepted by Norwegian F-16 jets. But as they entered the Nato area for which Britain has responsibility they were shadowed by four RAF F3 Tornado fighters.

The bombers eventually altered course to leave the Nato zone and headed back to their base.

The increased Russian air activity is part of Mr Putin's ambitious attempts to revive Russia's reputation as one of the world's leading military powers.

The end of the Cold War resulted in a drastic reduction in the size and effectiveness of Moscow's military arsenal, which left the United States as the world's undisputed military superpower.

But Russia's resurgent economy, which has been achieved by Mr Putin's renationalisation of the country's vast energy resources, has allowed the Russian leader to revive Moscow's military ambitions to the extent that Nato forces constantly need to be on their guard to be ready to react to any challenge the Russians may pose to Western security.

Mr Putin has also warned of Russia's need to modernise its nuclear arsenal in the face of the Bush administration's plans to deploy its anti-missile defence system in central Europe.

British Tornados scrambled to intercept Russian jets nearing British airspace more..