Russia, backed up by reporters from several of Russia’s state-controlled media services, claims that a Polish NATO jet attempted to intercept or “buzz” a plane transporting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over the Baltic Sea on Wednesday.
The Russians further claim that one of their own fighters chased away the Polish F-16 by displaying its weapons. Russian reports onboard Shoigu’s plane agreed with this account and posted video of the incident.
The video makes the incident seem much less dramatic than Russia’s description of the encounter, which just happened to occur two days after an armed Russian fighter flew within five feet of an unarmed American recon plane over the Baltic Sea. No doubt it is also a complete coincidence that Sweden summoned the Russian ambassador to complain about a Russian jet getting aggressive with a Swedish recon plane in the same region.
There are no “Top Gun” hijinks on display in the Russian video; the NATO fighter flies sedately alongside the Russian aircraft for a while, examining or escorting it. The F-16 doesn’t seem in any particular hurry to leave after the Russian Su-27 shows off its weapons.
NATO’s account of the incident is very different from Russia’s. According to a statement from NATO, the Russian transport plane and its two fighter escorts were detected while en route to Kaliningrad, which brought them close to the airspace of Poland and Lithuania and prompted routine scrutiny.
“As the aircraft did not identify themselves or respond to air traffic control, NATO fighter jets scrambled to identify them, according to standard procedure. NATO has no information regarding who was on board,” said the NATO statement.
“Once complete, NATO jets break away. This is standard procedure. All our pilots behave in a safe and responsible way,” the statement added.
CNN pointedly asked a NATO official if the Russians chased the Polish F-16 away, and received the same response: “Once identification of the aircraft was complete, our jets broke away as it is standard procedure.”
Russia has been excusing the actions of its pilots by claiming that everyone else is flying aggressively or unprofessionally.
Defense Minister Shoigu would certainly know NATO’s protocols for investigating flights that refuse to identify themselves to air traffic controllers. It is convenient that he just happened to have some reporters on hand when his plane and its escorts behaved in a manner that he knew would invite a certain response, spawning dozens of international media headlines about a NATO fighter “buzzing” his plane. A remarkable number of news outlets wrote that headline exactly the way the Russians wanted them to.