Russia: NATO Voices Aviation Protest

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/world/europe/russia-nato-voices-aviation-protest.html

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NATO on Monday accused Russia of posing a danger to civil aviation in the Baltic region after Sweden protested that a Russian Air Force jet had flown too close to an airliner and had turned off one of its location instruments. Friday’s episode off southern Sweden inflamed sensitivities over Russian Air Force flights in the region that have increased steeply this year, driven in part by tensions over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis. “They are not filing their flight plans and they are not communicating with civilian air traffic control and they are not turning on their transponders,” said NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, referring to a safety device. “That poses a risk to civilian air traffic.” Russia denied that its aircraft had posed any hazard to the airliner.