The tension between Putin and NATO
As a stark warning to the West, Russia has flown two supersonic nuclear bombers over the Norwegian Sea, north of Shetland. The mission came just hours after Vladimir Putin deployed his strategic aircraft over the Bering Sea, the body of water that separates Alaska from Russia’s far east. Putin’s decision to send forces along NATO borders is seen as a show of military strength vis-à-vis the West, as Russia prepares to mark the first anniversary of the disastrous war in Ukraine on February 24. The flights of the gigantic Tu-160 White Swans follow ominous warnings from the Putin regime and its propagandists about the use of nuclear weapons in case of defeat in conventional warfare. It all comes as NATO defense ministers gather in Brussels this week to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine and their commitment to defense spending. The planes patrolled the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea in a 13-hour mission that included in-flight refueling, the Russian Defense Ministry said. “Two Tu-160 strategic bombers performed a flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Norwegian and Barents seas,” the statement read. In a crescendo of nuclear tension, the Norwegian intelligence service announced in its annual report that for the first time in three decades, Russia has begun deploying vessels with tactical nuclear weapons in the Baltic Sea. The nuclear-armed ships belong to Putin’s Northern Fleet.
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