-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Russian Warplanes Fly Near Japan By Sarah Karush Associated Press Writer Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001; 2:29 p.m. EST MOSCOW –– The Russian military held air exercises near Norway and Japan on Wednesday, forcing fighter jets in both countries to scramble and eliciting a strong protest from Japan, which said the planes violated its airspace. Japan's Foreign Ministry called in a Russian diplomat to protest and the defense agency said the Russian military planes violated Japanese airspace twice. Koichiro Oshima, a Japanese defense agency official, said four planes including TU-22 bombers, were spotted late Wednesday morning in the Japanese airspace off Rebunto island and two TU-22 bombers were spotted later in the same area. Each time, the planes flew over Japanese airspace for about three minutes, Oshima said. Japanese fighters scrambled toward the Russian warplanes after they were spotted on radar screens, but no encounter occurred, Oshima said. "We again analyzed all the actions of our pilots, and there were no violations of Japan's airspace," Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said. Russian Blackjack strategic bombers also flew along the coast of Norway, which along with Japan is a neighbor of Russia. Officials there called it an unusual event, but said the Russian planes remained in international airspace. Norwegian fighters scrambled and identified the two aircraft as supersonic Tu-160 Blackjack bombers, flying in international airspace northwest of Andoeya, an island along Norway's northern coast. Col. John Espen Lien of the Norwegian Supreme Defense Command said the Russians had advised Norway, with which it shares Arctic land and waters, that it was planning increased activity from military bases on the Kola Peninsula of northwestern Russia. Russian officials said there was nothing illegal or unusual about either exercise. "We fly without violating anything," said Air Force spokesman Alexander Dobryshevsky. "We don't complain when every day a dozen NATO planes fly along our shores." He said Russia was ready to present "objective evidence" proving that the planes had not entered anybody's airspace. Some military analysts said Wednesday's flights were part of a pattern of increased air activity aimed at showing off Russian military might. "Russia has sharply increased test flights of its planes since NATO's campaign in Kosovo," said Alexander Pikayev, a military analyst at the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office. "The military wants to show that it's too early to write Russia off." In October, Russian fighter jets buzzed a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan. The Russian military has also stepped up flights around the country's northeast corner, across the Bering Strait from Alaska. Two bombers flew down the Norwegian coastline in 1999, while another two were intercepted by U.S. fighter jets near Iceland. "Whether they violated airspace of not, that's not the key thing," said Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst. "They were demonstrating the rebirth of Russia's military might." Pikayev said Wednesday's exercises may also be a response to recent signals from Washington that Russia no longer occupies a privileged place in U.S. foreign policy. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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