British Jets Scramble to Intercept Russian Bombers
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Pushing to unify western democracies, or sounding out how desperate we are for its energy resources?
Amid fraying relations between Russia and the United Kingdom, two British fighter jets were sent to confront two Russian bombers flying north of Scotland, the London Times reported today (see GSN, March 6).
Norwegian F-16s followed the Russian bombers south until the Royal Air Force scrambled two Yorkshire-based Tornado fighter jets from its Quick Reaction Alert squadron.
There was no direct confrontation, the Times reported. "The Russians turned back before they reached British airspace," said a Royal Air Force spokesman.
The air force said it was irregular for the Russian bombers to patrol so far south of their base in the Arctic Circle.
British authorities recently ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats over the 2006 murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. The move came after Moscow refused to extradite a Russian citizen charged in the United Kingdom with murdering Litvinenko (see GSN, May 22; Richard Beeston, The Times, July 18).
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1 comment:
Great work.
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