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- Nov 26, 2009
Some of these things I've been reading on the internet these past few weeks, just seems like something is bound to happen sooner or later.
Russian strategic bombers reportedly practice nuclear missile strike against US
Not sure why those last 3 paragraphs are striked out.
Russia Threatens to Bankrupt Western Airlines by Closing Its Airspace
Cliffs
- Russia keeps coming close to US and Canadian airspace with nuclear bombers
- Russia considering going back to soviet airspace plan
- US will run military exercises in Western Ukraine next week
- Russia and China signing multi billion dollar energy deals
- Russia might next look to invade Estonia or other baltic states that are members of NATO
Is something bound to happen within the next few years?
Russian strategic bombers reportedly practice nuclear missile strike against US
A pair of Russian bomber jets reportedly practiced cruise missile attacks against targets in the United States last week, according to a report published on Monday in the Washington Free Beacon.
Bill Gertz, a writer for the Beacon, reported that two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers were tracked flying over the Labrador Sea last week in the northern Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, Greenland and Canada as part of a recent training mission.
“Analysis of the flight indicated the aircraft were conducting practice runs to a pre-determined ‘launch box’ — an optimum point for firing nuclear-armed cruise missiles at US targets,” Gertz wrote, citing unnamed defense officials he described as being familiar with intelligence reports.
The aircraft, Gertz added, are outfitted with six AS-15 nuclear-armed cruise missiles, each capable of striking targets as far away as 1,800 miles.
Representatives for the US Northern Command and Northern American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, declined to comment to Gertz ahead of his report, and told RT in an email Monday afternoon that they could not confirm the allegations printed by the Free Beacon. On his part, however, Gertz wrote that neither the US nor Canada responded to the alleged incident because it reportedly occurred outside of the North American Air Defense Identification Zone.
According to Gertz, the reported drill occurred last week at the same time that officials from the US, Canada and other allied partners met in Wales for the largest NATO summit of its kind in two years, where on the agenda, among other topics, was the escalating crisis in eastern Ukraine and potential action that could be undertaken to counter perceived Russian aggression. On the heels of that meeting, both the US and the European Union are expected to impose new sanctions against Moscow.
The latest report comes days after Russia’s own recent decision to revise a 2010 military doctrine to identify the US and NATO members as enemies, which “clearly outlinethe conditions of a preemptive nuclear strike” against partner countries, Gertz wrote. With regards to the alliance, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said during last week’s summit that at least 4,000 troops from various member states will soon form a “spearhead” regiment that will be “ready to deploy within a few days with air, sea and Special Forces support” in the event that the Ukrainian crisis spread into allied territory.
Gertz has previously reported for the Beacon that no fewer than 16 Russian bombers incurred the airspace of either US or Canada during the month of August, and this week’s article comes days after similar allegations were made abroad: late last month, a Dutch F-16 military jet intercepted and escorted a Russian Tu-95 bomber out of that nation’s airspace, as did the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force during a similar incident.
“Clearly, we at the US Strategic Command do monitor the strategic environment,”Admiral Cecil Haney, commander of the US Strategic Command, told Gertz last month following reports that Russian bombers came within 50 miles of California on the US West Coast. "I will say that the business of them coming close to the United States of America, we take very seriously.”
Not sure why those last 3 paragraphs are striked out.
Russia Threatens to Bankrupt Western Airlines by Closing Its Airspace
Russia is threatening a return to Soviet-era airspace restrictions in response to new European Union sanctions, a move that could force Western airlines to cancel flights or improvise complicated and expensive alternative routes.
On Monday, the EU signed off on additional sanctions to punish the Kremlin for incursions into Ukraine in recent weeks. In a statement, EU President Herman Van Rompuy said the sanctions targeting Russian oil companies — though not the gas producers that supply Europe with much of its energy — would take effect in the coming days.
The EU, however, said it would allow the sanctions to be reviewed in the future, pending the result of a ceasefire announced between the Kiev government and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's east.
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said previously that such sanctions would trigger a response that could include blocking Western airlines from flying over Russian airspace. Russia's airspace is the world's largest, covering nine time zones from the Baltic to the Bering Sea.
"We work on the basis of friendly relations with our partners, and that's why Russia's skies are open to flights. But if we are restricted then we'll have to respond."
Watch all of VICE News' Russian Roulette dispatches here.
"If there are sanctions related to the energy sector, or further restrictions on Russia's financial sector, we will have to respond asymmetrically," Medvedev told the Russian news site Vedomosti. "We work on the basis of friendly relations with our partners, and that's why Russia's skies are open to flights. But if we are restricted then we'll have to respond."
"If Western carriers have to bypass our airspace, this could drive many struggling airlines into bankruptcy," said Medvedev.
Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow banned most US-aligned countries from flying through its airspace. Under international aviation agreements, sovereign countries have the right to refuse entry to foreign aircraft.
"He's basically threatening to go back to the system that was in place," Robert Orttung, assistant director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University, told VICE News. "The Russians feel compelled to respond in ways that are not very productive. It would make Russia more of a pariah state."
It was unclear if Russia would include flights destined for Russia, not just those traveling through the country, in the potential restrictions.
War in Peace: Divided East Ukraine Braces As Ceasefire Crumbles. Read more here.
Aviation experts say a flight ban would cause hundreds of cancellations in the short term and over time could hold severe consequences for European-based airlines, especially ones that operate flights directly to East Asia.
"A lot of the flights we fly now didn't exist during Soviet times," R. John Hansman, director of the MIT International Center for Air Transportation, told VICE News. "For direct flights from Northern Europe to Japan, for example, you'd have to go south all the way to Afghanistan and cut across China, or you'd have to fly all the way over the North Pole to Alaska and turn back."
By Hansman's estimate, a route over the Arctic Circle could lengthen flight times by as much as 70 percent, effectively making them impossible logistically and financially — unless an Alaskan city such as Anchorage takes on a role as a transcontinental hub.
Airlines with hubs along southern routes to Asia, such as Emirates, could possibly stand to gain from increased ticketing due to the restrictions.
A flight ban would ratchet stakes to levels reminiscent of the Cold War, when the USSR shot down several civilian airliners that entered its airspace.
But mutually assured economic pain could preclude the use of airspace as a weapon for very long. Should Western countries and the US respond by ending flights to Russian cities — as they almost surely would — the Russian economy, already feeling the sting of existing US and EU sanctions, could be devastated.
Ceasefire Threatened After Ukrainian Positions Shelled Outside Mariupol. Read more here.
Following Russia's annexation of Crimea in March, the US, many European nations, and several other allies began levying sanctions that target individual companies and financial transactions in Russia. In April, the US expanded sanctions against Russia to include billionaires in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. On the list were Igor I. Sechin, head of Rosneft, a Russian state-owned Rosneft oil company, and Sergei V. Chemezov, the director general of Rosetc, another state-owned company that oversees tech development.
Russia responded by imposing its own sanctions on high-ranking Western politicians, and banning imports of many US and European agricultural goods.
The existing sanctions have already hurt the Russian economy. In August, the Kremlin was forced to inject $6.6 billion in two state-owned banks. The government also cut projected 2016 revenues from state-owned energy giants Gazprom and Rosneftegaz by $18 billion.
A flight ban would ratchet stakes to levels reminiscent of the Cold War, when the USSR shot down several civilian airliners that entered its airspace. But Orttung believes Putin's gambit in Ukraine has extended him to the point where he cannot easily retract, making a flight ban not out of the question.
"He sees this as an existential issue, driven by domestic politics," said Orttung. "He's working very hard to maintain his popularity, but it's not getting any easier for him."
Cliffs
- Russia keeps coming close to US and Canadian airspace with nuclear bombers
- Russia considering going back to soviet airspace plan
- US will run military exercises in Western Ukraine next week
- Russia and China signing multi billion dollar energy deals
- Russia might next look to invade Estonia or other baltic states that are members of NATO
Is something bound to happen within the next few years?
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