this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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Not really newsworthy.
They do this regularly. It's normal.
It's used to test reaction time. They fly towards the border, then see how fast the jets scramble.
Eg.
https://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/23/world/europe/russian-bombers-intercepted/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/03/military-aircraft-interventions-have-surged-top-gun-but-for-real
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/17/raf-fighters-intercept-two-russian-bombers-uk-airspace
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/russian-bombers-f-22-intercept-alaska/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/11/politics/us-stealth-fighters-intercept-russian-bombers/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/08/politics/us-aircraft-intercept-russian-bombers/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/31/politics/russian-jet-nato-b-52/index.html
https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-planes-over-north-sea-intercepted-by-belgian-f-16s-dutch-defence-2021-11-12/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/30/politics/nato-russia-jets/index.html
Here's a few where the Russian scrambled jets when the US flew to near Russia:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/21/russia-says-warplane-scrambled-a-us-bombers-flew-over-baltic-sea
https://www.the-sun.com/news/3736802/russia-warplanes-intercept-us-b-52-nuclear/
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-scrambles-two-fighter-jets-escort-us-strategic-bombers-over-black-sea-ria-2021-10-20/
Caveat: the Russians try to portray any flight even slightly near the Russian border as very agressive and obviously use any and all incidents to play a round of whataboutism. They've also got this whole narrative going about NATO being about to invade Russia. Meanwhile western media will portray these intercepts as very agressive and unprofessional, something the Russians will deny, but given what happened with that drone a while back that's likely true.
Occasionally someone will violate someone else's airspace, especially if countries degree where it starts/ends. Also not uncommon.
Same thing with China.
Not really a big deal, except that time Turkey shut down a Russian jet, or occasional spy ballon/drone shootdowns. Certainly unlikely to start a war.
Yeah, they also buzz Alaska and Seattle on a regular basis as well.