NATO Claims Spike in Russian Military Flights Around Europe

No Actual Violations of NATO Airspace, Officials Admit

NATO officials, ever determined to hype the Russian “threat” to their territory, are claiming large numbers of Russian strategic bomber flights over the Black Sea and Atlantic near European territory, which they claimed was a threat to commercial flights.

Despite making a huge deal of the flights, which included a handful of Tu-95 strategic bombers, aging 1950s prop planes, the officials conceded there were no actual violations of NATO airspace whatsoever.

Bomber flights near NATO territory are not anything new, and happen from time to time. The amount of hype they receive is generally dependent on whether or not NATO is of a mind to make Russia out to be a threat at the time it takes place.

With no violation of NATO airspace, there is no reason to believe any of this is anything out of the ordinary, and is a continuation of NATO trying to portray Russia as starting a new Cold War for the sake of pushing military spending increases alliance-wide.

Indeed the only real “incident” to happen around Europe was a Latvian plane, with a broken radio, intercepted over Kent by British warplanes. That is NATO airspace, though with both Latvia and Britain NATO members, it’s not strictly a violation.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.