Russia warns off US spy plane off coast of Kaliningrad

Russian Fighter Barrel-Rolls Over a US Spy Plane on a 'Routine Mission' off the Coast of Kaliningrad

Why is US routinely flying spy missions off the Russian coast?

Russia Insider,

18 April, 2016

Seeing how cooperative regime media in the west was last week when US Navy took to Twitter and Youtube to cry about unarmed Russian jet "flying dangerously close" to their ship – which happened to be drilling 70 nautical miles off the Russian city of Kaliningrad – you can't really blame the Air Force for wanting in on some of that action too.

US Air Force is feigning shock and horror as it tells the media that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet performed a dangerous maneuver while intercepting a US spy plane on a "routine mission" in Baltic international waters (which unless US was spying on Poland would have been off the Russian coast). 

The actions of the US military are perfectly understandable; the more anti-Russian hysteria it can generate the bigger piece of the budget pie it will get.

Its the media which is failing to do its job (if you believe their job is to inform). Somehow nobody in the western mainstream is asking the question how is a spying mission off the Russian coast a "routine" thing? It is certainly not to the Russians.

Western media is rolling out other similar instances of Russian "aggressive maneuvers" such as:

On Jan. 25, 2016 a U.S. RC-135 intelligence gathering jet was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter jet over Black Sea: during the interception, the Su-27 made an aggressive turn that disturbed the controllability of the RC-135.

On Apr. 7, 2015 another Su-27 flew within 20 feet of an RC-135U, over the Baltic Sea.

On Apr. 23, 2015 a U.S. Air Force RC-135U Combat Sent performing a routine surveillance mission in international airspace over the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan, some 60 miles off eastern Russia was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker that crossed the route of the U.S. aircraft putting itself within 100 feet of the Combat Sent.

This is supposed to show Russians are routinely reckless and aggressive, but what it really shows is how routine and normal it is for the US to harass Russia with spying missions off Russia's every coast.

Americans contend their surveillance flights do not break international law, but Russians say neither do their "reckless" intercepts – ie what's good for the goose is good for the gander. 

The only difference between the two is that Americans are crying about it to the media, even though it's taking place in Russian seas – frequently inside the Russian maritime exclusive economic one.

The CNN version

Russian Jet Threatened U.S. Recon Aircraft

Barrel rolls over plane in latest Baltic Sea provocation

A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft on Thursday in the latest military provocation by Moscow over the Baltic Sea, the U.S. European Command said Saturday.