Ivan Flexes Nuclear Muscles

Starting last summer, the Russian military began a slow but steady increase in their strategic bomber "patrol" flights throughout the northern sectors of the Atlantic and Pacific. Yesterday, this increase got a little sticky. According to the New York Times:

TOKYO (AP) — A Russian Air Force bomber briefly violated Japanese airspace on Saturday over an uninhabited island south of Tokyo, prompting Japan to scramble 22 fighter jets and issue a protest with Moscow, the Foreign Ministry here said. The Russian Air Force denied the intrusion.

The Russian Tupolev 95 left Japanese airspace within three minutes of warnings by Japanese Air Force jets over Sofugan in the Izu island chain, 400 miles south of Tokyo, a Foreign Ministry official said.

The Ruskies officially deny the incident, of course, claiming the bombers were escorted by by Japanese and American fighters but I'm a little suspicious. A Tupolev 95 (officially designated "Bear" by NATO) is a turboprop-driven bomber that's been in service since the 1950s; it's slow and should be relatively easy to spot by early warning aircraft and ground radar. Plus, why would Japan make it up? F/A-18's were also scrambled from the USS Nimitz, which is operating in the northern Pacific within 7th Fleet's area of responsibility.

Russia seems to be flexing its muscles as the Times goes on to explain:

The situation occurred after Japan held an annual rally on Thursday to demand the return of a disputed island chain, called the Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, that Russia seized in the last days of World War II.

A Tupolev 95 is capable of carrying air to surface nuclear missiles.