Su-27 chases away NATO F-16 that flew remarkably close to Russian plane carrying Defense Minister Shoigu

A NATO F-16 aircraft flew extremely close to a Russian Defense Ministry plane carrying Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu on Wednesday. The incident occurred in international airspace above the Baltic Sea. Shoigu and several colleagues were en route to the Russian exclave Kaliningrad. The plane’s Su-27 escort intercepted the F-16, “demonstrated its payload” by tilting its wings, and the NATO jet backed off.

• There have been several reports in the past several months that NATO has scrambled its aircraft to intercepted Russian military planes flying near the borders of NATO member countries. Moscow, in turn, has sent its jets to intercept NATO aircraft it says are carrying out reconnaissance missions along the edge of Russian airspace.