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Russia: No return to Cold War Duncan Gardham
"This isn't connected with thinking in terms of blocs or conflicts, let alone a return to the Cold War," First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said during a visit to Kemerovo in southern Siberia, ITAR-TASS reported. Ivanov said, "This is an ordinary working situation. There are no conflicts. We are flying by the same transparent, understandable rules as our American partners." Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he had ordered the military to resume regular long-range flights of strategic bombers amid a chill in relations with the United States.
Since 1992, Russia had unilaterally stopped flights of its strategic aviation in remote combat areas. However, "not all of countries followed suit" and that has created certain problems for Russia's security, Putin said. "For this reason I have made the decision on the resumption of flights of Russian strategic aviation," he added. Russian bombers had been making increasingly frequent flights toward US territory in the lead-up to Putin's announcement, while Britain and Norway had repeatedly scrambled jets to intercept Russian planes near their airspace. Ivanov said Russia had resumed the bomber flights "so Russian pilots can acquire professional experience. There is nothing at all to worry about".
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Russia says its return to the Soviet-era practice of sending strategic
bombers on long-range flights is not a return to the Cold War. 
