RAF jets scrambled to intercept Russian planes
Pastor Dale Morgan
RAF jets scrambled to intercept Russian planes*
By Sally Peck and agencies
Last Updated: 7:54am BST 19/07/2007
Two RAF fighter jets were scrambled on Tuesday to intercept two Russian
planes on course for British airspace, it emerged yesterday.
The incident marked the latest escalation of tensions in the standoff
between London and Moscow.
As Moscow hesitated in its response to Britain's expulsion of four
Russian diplomats, two Tornado fighters raced to meet the Tu95 "Bear"
bombers that had been dispatched from their base near the northern port
city of Murmansk in the Arctic Circle. The planes turned back before
they reached British airspace.
The incident, now rare according to the RAF, but once commonplace during
the Cold War, may be seen as a show of defiance by the Kremlin.
But Moscow said the Russian planes were on a training flight unrelated
to the current diplomatic crisis over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.