RAF jets scrambled to intercept Russian planes
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.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/19/wrussia419.xml