Russian military planes fly close to Norwegian airspace

OSLO - Eight Russian military planes including four Tupolev-95 bombers were seen flying on Wednesday over the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea close to Norwegian airspace, reported the Norwegian news agency NTB.

Two Norwegian F-16 fighter jets took off at 0300 GMT on Wednesday morning from Bodo in northern Norway to watch and take pictures of the Russian warplanes flying in international airspace.

The other four Russian planes were tankers which flew from Kola with the bombers.

Six of the Russian planes turned after cruise over Norwegian Sea while two bombers continued south to the North Sea following a route in parallel to the Norwegian border.

British and Portuguese fighter jets took over the job of observation as the Russian planes flew further south over the North Sea.

"We follow Russian flights weekly and sometimes several times a week," Brynjar Stordalselva, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Joint Headquarters was quoted as saying.

The Norwegian military has not seen any change in the pattern of Russian planes, said the spokesperson.

The Latvian military reported observation of twelve Russian military aircraft including the advanced MiG-31 fighters in recent days over the Baltic Sea, while over the Black Sea Turkish fighter jets met four Russian warplanes, said the NTB report.