Russia flexes muscle from Alaska to Japan
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US defense officials are calling recent sightings of Russian bombers off the Alaskan coast "nothing out of the ordinary" -- itself an indication that both nations are toeing the line between routine military posturing and escalating provocation.
On Monday, US F-22 fighter jets intercepted two Russian bombers in international airspace 100 miles from Kodiak Island, Alaska. A US military official called the interaction "safe and professional."
a US surveillance aircraft responded to two Russian bombers that were spotted in the same area, this time flying 41 miles off Alaska.
The Russian aircraft did not enter US airspace in either instance and US defense officials say there was nothing unusual or confrontational about the Russians' conduct. The US itself has carried out similar flights along both the Chinese and Russian coasts.
Moscow, for its part, said it "regularly carries out patrol missions above the neutral waters of the Arctic, the Atlantic, the Black Sea and the Pacific Ocean."
"All such missions are carried out in strict compliance with international regulations and with respect to national borders," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a written statement.
But this week's encounter plays into a larger effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin "to prove Russia is back in the game," according to Howard Stoffer, a former State Department staffer.
"This kind of cat-and-mouse stuff has been going on for a while now," Stoffer told CNN, adding that Putin "is trying to put the US on notice that the Russians are everywhere and are back to expanding the limits of expanding their military power."
"It is one thing when you fly to be noticed," he said. "When the Russians buzz US ships, that is an unprofessional action because upsets the operation and is dangerous for all parties involved ... that is where the line that is drawn."
US officials have echoed Stoffer's stance as recently as February, after the USS Porter had three encounters with Russian aircraft while sailing in the Black Sea.
Those encounters were deemed unsafe and unprofessional because of how close the Russian planes flew to the American destroyer, a senior defense official said at the time.
Moscow denied that its aircraft had made any unsafe moves.
Russian aircraft have also been spotted recently flying near the coastline of US allies, including Japan, which has scrambled fighter jets four times this month in response, according to a statement from the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
The Viktor Leonov, a Russian spy ship, has also been spotted near the US coastline twice in recent months.
Rising tensions between US and Russia are a far cry from President Donald Trump's optimistic campaign rhetoric of hopes for a collaborative relationship. As Trump himself said earlier this month, relations between the former Cold War foes "may be at an all-time low."
The two nations have clashed over deeply rooted strategic differences this month.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's alleged April 4 chemical weapons attack on his own civilians triggered Trump's outrage, leading him to strike a Syrian airfield with Tomahawk missiles, and witnessed a change in Trump's stance on Russia, which has supported Assad throughout Syria's bloody civil war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the US missile strikes on an airfield in Syria were a failed attempt to try to undermine the peace process in the country and to change the regime.
And Russia has stood with Iran, a long-time US foe, in condemning the strikes.
"Attempts of this kind will never be a success. It will never happen," Lavrov said during a joint news conference with the Iranian and Syrian foreign ministers in Moscow. "We demand that the United States should respect the sovereignty of a state and avoid such actions that threaten the current world order."
Opposing views on the conflict in Ukraine have also become a hot-button issue between the Kremlin and the new US administration.
In February, Russia's Foreign Ministry also indicated that it intends to keep Crimea and not return it to Ukraine because it considers it to be part of Russia -- a stance that the Trump administration has said it directly opposes.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said earlier this year that Trump had
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