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Russian Aviation Overflies Its Limits
// Japan protests the violation of its airspace
Japan has accused Russian of violating its airspace
Tokyo made an official protest to Moscow on Saturday, accusing the Russian Air Force of violating Japan's airspace. The scandal broke out at the same time as Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin was meeting in Tokyo with his colleagues from industrially developed countries. ITAR-TASS Japan correspondent Vasily Golovin has details especially for Kommersant.
Strategic Flyby
The Japanese Defense Ministry reported that a single Russian Tu-95MS strategic bomber (a “Bear” in the Western classification) flew into the country's airspace at about 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. The plane remained in Japanese airspace about three minutes near the uninhabited Sofugan, between the Izu island chain and Ogasawara Island, about 650 km. south of Tokyo. The bomber, it is claimed, was addressed by radio repeatedly in Russian and told to leave the area but did not respond.
The Bear appeared over Sofugan unexpectedly. The Japanese claim that accompanied it all the way to Sakhalin. First F-15 fighters were dispatched from the Chitose Air Force Base in Hokkaido to accompany it. They passed it off to other forces. A total of 22 fighters of various type, two early-warning planes and E-3A guidance AWACS were involved, so the Japanese could thank their Russian colleagues for the drill.
The Tu-95, Tokyo claims, passed over the Kuriles, along the eastern shore of the islands of Hokkaido and Honshu and then turned south, as if toward the Philippines. However, then the bomber made an unexpected turn in the direction of Tokyo. After flying over Sofugan, took a return course almost along the same route and, they claim, flew off in the direction of the Russian Maritime Territory.
The head of the Russian department of the Japanese Foreign Ministry summoned the advisor to the Russian Embassy in Tokyo and voiced “sharp protest,” demanding that measures be taken to prevent it from happening again. Tokyo is connecting the flyover with the redeployment of the U.S. Navy strike force led by the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, which is now anchored at Sasebo naval base on Kyushu Island. According to some reports, a U.S. F-18 from the Nimitz accompanied the Russian bomber as well.
The Russian Embassy immediately informed the Russian Foreign Ministry of the protest. “We understand that the appropriate proceedings will be followed in Moscow, after which the Japanese side will be given a response,” an accredited Russian diplomat in Tokyo said.
Asymmetrical Response
The alleged flight of the Bear over Sofugan has reverberations as far away as Munich. Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, who arrived in that city Saturday for an international conference on security policy, raised the topic at a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov. The minister demanded a new investigation of the incident, but was told that there was no violation of the airspace by the Russians.
Representatives of the Russian Air Force toed the same line. Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, head of the Air Force information and public relations service, said that four Russian long-distance aviation planes made a flight over the Pacific Ocean that day of more than ten hours and were accompanied by Japanese and American planes. Dobryshevsky claimed that “all flights of Air Force planes were carried out in strict conformity with international rules on the use of airspace over neutral waters, without violating the borders of any country.”
Deputy Chief Commander of the Air Force for aviation Gen. Lieut. Igor Sadofyev took the same position on Saturday. “In the name of the chief commander of the Air Force, I am authorized to state we have no comment to make on the incident. Our strategic aviation planes did not violate Japanese airspace, they performed a routine flight in strict conformity with international rules,” he said. “Russian planes fly there for many months already and there have been no objections from other countries, including Japan. We do not know where those claims have come from now.”
The Japanese Hitch
Tokyo claims that a Tu-95 approached the Izu Islands last July, but did not enter Japanese airspace. Russian flights along the edge of Japanese airspace have increased markedly since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the renewal of strategic aviation flights. Last year, it was reported, Japanese fighter planes were dispatched more than 100 times for the possible interception of Russian military planes, mainly in the North. “The Russian have obviously gotten more kerosene,” commented a Japanese military agency. According to the count of Russia's scrupulous neighbors, Soviet, and later Russian, planes have invaded Japanese airspace 32 times since 1967. The last time an incident of the type was recorded was in January 2006. At that time, an An-27 belonging to Russian border forces flew over the Japanese zone seven times as it chased a poachers' ship near the northern island of Rebun in the Sea of Japan. Moscow explained the incident in a conciliatory tone and Tokyo did not object too strenuously.
The situation this time at Sofugan is the second jolt to bilateral relations so far this year. In January, Tokyo made an official protest to Moscow in connection with the uncovering of an employee in one of the Japanese special services who was allegedly working for Russian military intelligence. That discovery did not case a major scandal.
It looks as though Tokyo does not intend to make much of this incident, which comes just before the possible visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Komura to Russian next month. It is evident from the fact that the Russian side was reproached at a relatively low level.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister was in Tokyo last weekend, invited to take part in a discussion by the heads of the financial agencies and central banks of the G7 – Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States, France and Japan. They decided not to disturb the Russian minister with protests, since bombers are beyond the competence of his ministry. The talks with Kudrin, therefore, had a positive tone, especially those about the investment of Russian National Prosperity Fund money in Japanese yen and securities.
Vasily Golovin
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 11, 2008
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