Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane ignored requests to make contact, in latest of what are seen as provocative acts by Kremlin

Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane ignored requests to make contact, in latest of what are seen as provocative acts by Kremlin

Two German Eurofighter jets were scrambled on Sunday to intercept a Russian military aircraft above the Baltic Sea, as Estonia said it would call an emergency meeting of the UN security council after Russian planes violated its airspace.

Germany’s air force said the Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane had switched off its transponders and ignored requests to make contact. The Eurofighters took off from the Rostock-Laage airbase to head off the aircraft as it flew in international airspace.

Tensions between Nato and Russia have been dramatically rising after a series of what European governments say are deliberate, provocative acts by the Kremlin. On Friday, three Russian MiG-31 fighters violated Estonian airspace in the Gulf of Finland. Moscow denies this.

  • mgnome@piefed.socialEnglish
    4·
    19 hours ago

    Thank you.

    Many folks fail to realize that it absolutely doesn’t hurt Putin to send another one or two million of his people to die for his delusions of grandeur. It’s not like he’s gonna have to start selling his mansions because Russia goes through economic hardships or that his own kids gonna get drafted.

    If Russia did things that are logical - they wouldn’t invade Ukraine in the first place, not to mention that their invasion and annexations are illegal even by Russian laws and constitution that Putin can rewrite at his whim, but absolutely nobody cares. So expecting a country that breaks its own laws while being an autocracy to follow logic is foolish at best.

    • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      18 hours ago

      Yeah. I’m not exactly a geopolitics-man, but my best guess for what’s going on with Putin and Russia’s strategy here is:

      1. He’d been doing fine with taking over small countries up until 2022, and it generally gave him opportunities for new goodies to give away to his friends and also it’s exciting and makes him look like a winner
      2. He’s been surrounded by yes men for so long that he’s lost his ability to really tell what are good strategies, what is happening, or what’s likely to happen in the future

      I think the combination means that he’s just kind of telling his military to do whatever, including invading Ukraine thinking it would go about the same way as Georgia, Crimea, Chechnya, and the US elections. I do think he benefits from a certain amount of native cunning in this particular brinksmanship with NATO, and of course it doesn’t take too much detailed understanding of facts on the ground to just fly some planes around in their airspace and flip people off, but also I think in general this latest chapter of Russia is just a pretty good demonstration of why authoritarianism doesn’t make for effective countries.