RUSSIAN MINISTERIAL PLANE APPROACHED BY NATO FIGHTERS

NATO F-16 fighters approached Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's plane over the Baltic on Wednesday. The hunters were Polish, the Polish military said on Thursday.

Two Polish F-16s were carrying out the NATO Air Policing mission over the Baltic Sea. They had been tasked with tracking three Russian aircraft, an unarmed Tupolev 154 and two Su-27 fighters armed with air-to-air missiles, according to the Polish Joint Operational Command in a statement.

“The interception was carried out in accordance with the procedures in force at NATO” , adds the press release, without further details.

This air policing mission, which is intended to reassure the Baltic countries about their security, is carried out in turn by member countries of NATO.

According to journalists from the main Russian news agencies present on board the Tupolev, the planes of the Atlantic Alliance tried to frame the plane of the Russian minister, but when one of them wanted to approach it the Su-27 escorting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's plane forced it away.

“ The Su-27 showed (to the) NATO plane that it was armed by turning around. After that, the NATO F-16 moved away , ”said an Interfax journalist, present on board the ministerial aircraft.

For its part, NATO said it was “standard procedure”.

According to the Alliance, Russian military aviation have increased their flights over the Baltic in recent days, while NATO is currently deploying four multinational battalions in Poland and the Baltic countries. It is true that the Baltic countries live in fear of a possible Russian attack and do everything in terms of deterrence to the point of forming a very efficient army in their respective countries.

The Estonian Ministry of Defense declared on March 2 that “the arrival of British soldiers proved the unity of NATO members” and contributed “to maintaining the balance of forces in the region”. This is Tallinn's official position.

Thus the Alliance aviation has been stationed in Estonia for several yearsand in 2016, an American tank company was established. In addition, between 4,000 and 5,000 soldiers from NATO countries are arriving in the country as part of the traditional“spring maneuvers”. From now on, an Alliance battalion will be present in the country on a permanent basis, an objective for which the Baltic countries have long fought.

In Russia, the deployment of these forces has aroused concern, but above all on the part of politicians and not of the military.

Indeed, this reinforcement of NATO forces is interpreted by Russia as a desire for encirclement and very badly tolerated by President Vladimir Putin.

These plans include deploying a new brigade to the Alliance's eastern borders, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The numbers are not very large, but it is a new step towards the consolidation of the NATO Response Force (NRF). The maintenance costs of the new international force will be largely borne by the Eastern European countries which will host it.

According to retired Colonel Viktor Kuznetsov, a military expert, the Russian military would not be worried about the reinforcement of the Alliance contingent :

“World practice has long known the notion of reacting to threats.

For example, in the event of large exercises near the borders of a country, the latter sends the ball by in turn organizing maneuvers in order to demonstrate its defensive capacity and reassure the population.

However, it is knowingly that Russia does not react to the Estonian spring manoeuvres.

Moscow does not consider it essential. The Russian army regularly launches surprise maneuvers in the Western Military District and organizes Western exercises. In addition, regular checks of the combat capability of the troops on the borders of Latvia and Estonia are carried out which, like the division exercises, are larger than all the war games launched by NATO. in the Baltic countries.

Also according to Viktor Kuznetsov, one of the main objectives of the new head of the White House, Donald Trump, is to increase the export of American military industry to Europe. The delivery of new equipment and the arrival of soldiers who will be responsible for training the Estonian army are in line with this policy. “US President Donald Trump has more than once said that Europe should pay for its own security,” he stressed.

NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller, who came to Bydgoszcz, Poland, reaffirmed that the Alliance was determined to prevent incidents of this kind from repeating themselves, according to her, "for the past ten years" .

"From NATO's point of view, we must prevent any such action, both airborne and with possible naval involvement, so that it does not develop into a deeper conflict or a misunderstanding," he said . Mrs. Gottemoeller in Polish.

“At the end of May, she continued , a group was supposed to meet to work out detailed provisions, because such situations do not benefit any of the parties” without providing the slightest precision.

The stationing of additional NATO contingents in the Baltic countries and in Poland was planned from the middle of last year, long before Donald Trump came to power.

Because NATO's concern is Kaliningrad, located in the westernmost region of Russia, which hosts large numbers of Russian troops.

“Tallinn as well as Brussels and Washington realize that it is impossible to launch an offensive against Saint Petersburg from Narva (north-eastern Estonia) by the force of one or even five battalions. one of Western source. The objective of NATO's Western contingent in Estonia is to train in the coordination of operations between the national army and its Western allies”.

"We welcomed with joy the initiative, which came a few years ago from the Baltic countries and Russia, to work together on a method to avoid the repetition of such incidents in the future", nevertheless underlined Mrs Gottemoeller.