Russian Su-27 fighter jet acts on rules over Baltic Sea - Russian Air Force ex-chief commander Deinekin
MOSCOW. April 17 (Interfax-AVN) - A Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet did not violate the international rules in a flight over the Baltic Sea, Russian Air Force ex-chief commander Gen. of the Army Pyotr Deinekin said.
"The Russian interceptor fighter, as well as the U.S. spy plane, has acted on the rules in the international airspace. And if the RC-135 (a U.S. spy plane) had intruded into Russian territory, the Russian pilot would have harshly offered it to land at a Russian airfield with the intelligence collected onboard," Deinekin told Interfax-AVN.
Additionally, he recalled that in the Cold War years "due to unprofessional actions" this was not a Soviet pilot, but a U.S. F-4 pilot that "has cut off the right panel of the Northern Fleet's Tupolev Tu-16 plane by the fin."
"However, even in those hard times this did not result in an unnecessary escalation of tension between the (whole) countries," he said.
The Russian strategic aircraft Tu-95 and Tu-160 are always convoyed by the fighter jets of the United States or the NATO countries, when performing their specific tasks far from the home coasts.
But each of them is doing a business of its own, and the Russian Foreign Ministry does not file any protests "through the diplomatic channels" to the U.S. State Department. "We have quite a lot of more serious problems," Deinekin said.
Previously, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Konashenkov said that, on April 14, the on-duty air defense forces over the waters of the Baltic Sea discovered an unknown aerial target which was heading at a great speed towards the Russian state border. "To identify the target, a Su-27 fighter aircraft of the Baltic Sea Fleet's on-duty aviation forces took off. It flew around the object and identified it as an RC-135U of the U.S. Air Force," Konashenkov said on Sunday.
After the visual contact with the Russian Su-27 aircraft, the RC-135U changed course in the direction opposite to the Russian border, the spokesman said.
