Russian bomber intercepted as Obama visited Canada
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- Ottawa (AFP) Feb 27, 2009 - Canadian fighter jets intercepted a Russian heavy bomber skirting Canada’s Arctic frontier within 24 hours of US President Barack Obama visit to Ottawa last week, officials said Friday. Russia confirmed the strategic bomber flight had indeed occurred.
The Tupolev Bear strategic bomber and cruise missile carrier did not enter Canadian airspace but came close enough for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to scramble two CF-18 fighter jets to ward it off, said Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay. The turbo prop bomber is most effective launching cruise missiles capable of striking anywhere in North America and it is unlikely such an attack could be effectively defended.
The CF-18 Hornets signaled to the Russian aircraft “to turn around, turn tail and head back to its own air space, which it did,” he said.
The incident occurred “within 24 hours” of President Obama’s first foreign trip on February 19, and was viewed “very seriously” by Canada, MacKay told a press conference.
“I’m not going to stand here and accuse the Russians of having deliberately done this during the presidential visit,” he said. “But it was a strong coincidence.”
Moscow described the flight as a routine air patrol.
Vladimir Drik, an aide to Russia’s chief of staff, was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency the crew acted solely within the limits of international air agreements and did not violate Canadian airspace.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, however, expressed “deep concerns” over “increasingly aggressive Russian actions around the globe and Russian intrusions into our airspace.”
The US Pentagon would not comment on the incident.
Earlier, Peter MacKay met with Canada’s Chief of the Defense Staff General Walt Natynczyk and General Gene Renuart, the commander of NORAD, to discuss the Canada-US air defense pact’s modernization, boosting Canadian-US military interoperability and the expansion of NORAD surveillance to maritime approaches to the continent.
MacKay indicated beefed up Russian military activity near Canadian airspace in recent years has been noticed as Russia reasserts itself after the end of the Cold War.
“I think it’s an example of the efforts being shown by the Russians to show their military capacity, maybe,” said MacKay. “That apparently includes coming close to and up to Canadian air space.
“But more seriously, it is an issue of sovereignty in the Arctic for Canadians,” he said, as global warming opens up the Arctic to navigation and oil and gas exploration.
In September, Canada said it was stepping up its military alertness along its northern frontier in response to Russia’s “testing” of its boundaries.
Ottawa unveiled plans for a sensor net, navy patrols and a military training camp in the far north.
Five countries bordering the Arctic — Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States — claim overlapping parts of the region, which is estimated to hold 90 billion untapped barrels of oil.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) stipulates that any coastal state can claim territory 200 nautical miles from their shoreline and exploit the natural resources within that zone.
Nations can also extend that limit to up to 350 nautical miles from their coast if they can provide scientific proof that the undersea continental plate is a natural extension of their territory.
Moscow said it should control the Northern Sea Route, a passage that stretches from Asia to Europe across northern Russia, and last year planted a flag on the ocean floor beneath the North Pole in a symbolic staking of its claim over the region. Russia went so far as to place its flag under the Arctic ice to claim the area and massive oil and natural gas reserves. Russia has increased its flight over the Arctic and last year sortied a nucler powered submarine under the ice and into the Beiring Sea where it koined the largest Russia military exercises since the Cold War within sight of Alaska.
The Canadian episode was logically designed to send a signal to Canada while Obama was there.
Canada meanwhile has claimed the famed Northwest Passage.
“We will defend our airspace,” Harper said Friday. “We will defend our sovereignty and we will respond every time Russia makes an intrusion on the sovereignty of Canada’s Arctic.”
MacKay added: “There is no heads up given by the Russians when they’re going to undertake this type of activity. They simply show up on a radar screen.”
The Canadian defense minister said he has pressed his Russian counterpart and the Russian ambassador in Ottawa for advance notice of Russian flight operations near Canadian airspace, but to no avail.
Comment by Miguel Vargas-Caba on 10 May 2009:
As the writer of a historical fiction novel based on the Cold War period, about the defection of a TU-95 BEAR D crew from the USSR to Canada, I find it very alarming and disturbing that these flights from Russia to North America have been occurring more and more frequently. As the Russian government tests the waters with its intercontinental bombers, soon we’ll have the permanent stationing of TU-95 BEARs in Venezuela, just like they used to station them in Cuba in the 70s and 80s. The trend started with the landing of 2 TU-160 Blackjacks in Caracas. The old spirit of the defunct Soviet Union is alive and well in Moscow. I predict that before the year is over, TU-95 BEARs will fly down the North American East Coast, and first land in Havana, then continue flight to Caracas. And the Cold War will freeze once again…
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Comment by Miguel Vargas-Caba on 10 May 2009:
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Comment by slowsmile on 14 May 2009:
Miguel….An interesting analysis. But I think, perhaps, your analysis is slightly unfair in and biased its conclusions and also starts at the wrong place. In the ’60s we had the Cuban Crisis — where President Kennedy was willing to embark on a nuclear war with Russia because of the threatening missiles placed on Cuba by the Russians. The excuse for placing Patriot missile bases in Poland and a radar base in Czechoslovakia is exactly the same as that situation, except now Russia “appears” to be threatened by the US. Bush, in his infinite wisdom or lack of it, has given the perfect excuse for Putin to put his Tu-95 BEARS back into the air with a vengeance as well as unwrapping and stationing there new Iskander missile system at their own border near Poland. Everyone knows that Iran’s nuclear missiles could barely reach Israel let alone Central Europe, so this poor excuse for these US installations is an extremely feeble and tacky one. So, as a judgement from history and as a necessity to “maintain the balance of power” — who can blame the Russians for their own apparent aggression or escalation?
In that old ‘balance of power’ game via deterrents between East and West, it appears that Russia is playing a mean game of chess and that the American politicians(together with Europe’s political elite) — including Obama’s fumbles — now regularly persist and continue to play a very clumsy form of checkers.
Comment by Miguel Vargas-Caba on 14 May 2009:
My alarm and concern do not come out of Russia’s position in this matter but, precisely, from what you so correctly pointed out: The placing of our missiles and radar base in Poland and the Czech Republic. Personally, I agree with you that we have no business in placing that hardware in that part of Eastern Europe, since it creates precisely the situation for which I am becoming alarmed and disturbed: The tit-for-tat that Putin and his puppet Medvedev are now playing with the US: You place your Patriots in Poland / We place our Iskanders in Kaliningrad. You send US Navy ships to Georgia, (long considered Russia’s backyard) / We send TU-160 bombers to Venezuela (long considered USA’s backyard). Whatever Russia does next, according to the new chess/checkers game played so meanly by the former and so clumsily by the latter, depends on what our politicians do next: You place more bombers in Europe or around the Black Sea (for example) / We place ours in Cuba/Venezuela. Then, as I said originally, we’ll see “TU-95 Bears flying down the North American East Coast, and the Cold War will freeze once again.” Since the old Soviet Union is still very much alive in the New Russia, maintaining the ‘balance of power’ with the West, even if it’s because of nationalistic pride, for saving face, or even for old-times’ sake, might push the Russian government –once again– into a weapons race that could bring even worse consequences than those experienced during the previous Cold War. Actually, I fear this scenario even more than the one fought with the old USSR. An ultranationalistic Russia, now with armed forces equipped to the teeth with thermonuclear weapons and very modern military hardware, may be even more fearsome than Nazi Germany…
Comment by RICHARD on 14 May 2009:
Putin ONLY reacts favorably to power. He is all about power. That’s why he is a chess master. His attitude is about winning through attrition and deception. The long totured history of Russia is embedded in his DNA. Obama is no match.
The Chinese are at least as malicious but far more patient and purposeful.
Both sense Obama’s willingness to retreat and they each are willing to advance int the created vacuum.
Obama said he is about change but the cost to America and Canada will be catastrophic and lead down a dangerously primrose path.
Putin’s hand is firmly on the tiller and yes, he is more dangerous than NAZI GERMANY in size, capability and practical ambition. He will take all he can and enslace those unwilling or unable to defend against him. For half century America has been the exponential number in their defense.
Comment by Miguel Vargas-Caba on 14 May 2009:
The saddest part of RICHARD’s assessment is that it is all true
Comment by Admin on 14 May 2009:
Read some reviews of Miguel Vargas-Caba’s Cold War fiction novel, “Bear: Flight to Liberty”. We thank Miguel for his participation on Hypocrisy.com.