Russian bombers play war games with US

Russia has opened another front in its international show of muscle by dispatching strategic bombers to the heart of American military power in the Pacific for the first time since the end of the Cold War. Two Russian Tu-95 bombers made the 3,200-mile flight to Guam, where more than 22,000 American troops are involved in exercises, a senior air force general said yesterday.

Major-General Pavel Androsov said that when US jets were scrambled, the Russian and American pilots "exchanged smiles". He added: "Whenever we saw US planes during our flights over the ocean, we greeted them. On Wednesday, we renewed the tradition when our young pilots flew by Guam in two planes. We exchanged smiles with our counterparts, who flew up from a US carrier and returned home."

The sortie was part of war games being staged in the Russian Far East. It was the third highly symbolic incident within a week during which the might of a resurgent Russia has been on display. First came the flag brazenly planted on the Arctic seabed on 2 August in support of Russian territorial claims.

"The Cold War has come to the North," read the headline in the Russian newspaper Kommersant over the weekend, after Canada and other countries with claims to the underwater Arctic mineral wealth stepped up their own preparations.

On Tuesday, the pro-Western former Soviet republic of Georgia accused a Russian fighter aircraft of violating its airspace and firing a missile into its territory on Monday night, just outside the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

While Western analysts play down talk of a new Cold War, Lieutenant-General Igor Khvorov, the air force chief of staff, said the West would have to come to terms with Russia asserting its geopolitical presence. "I don't see anything unusual, this is business as usual," he said, referring to Wednesday's flight to Guam by the Russian bombers.

Georgia is demanding an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over what Tbilisi called an "act of aggression". The rocket did not explode and landed in a field. Russia denies having had any aircraft in the area and accused the Georgians of firing the missile against themselves.

Yesterday, the spat intensified as General Yuri Baluyevsky, the head of Russia's military general staff, said: "I'm simply convinced it was a provocation by Georgia... This is a provocation against Russian peacekeepers. This was a provocation against Russia." A Georgian official dismissed the comments as "sheer nonsense".

The US administration has warned against escalating the rhetoric after the incident, but in diplomatic language expressed support for Georgia. The 15-member UN Security Council held an initial exchange on how to deal with the issue yesterday, but "the Russians don't want an early discussion," said one UN diplomat.

Georgia claims to have radar records of the flight and identified the fighter as a Russian Su-24 jet, which fired a Russian Raduga KH-58 anti-radar missile. Georgia has also released audio recordings and an air traffic control transcript. A Georgian controller talked to a Russian counterpart about an unscheduled flight. The Russian checked with his supervisor. He then told the Georgian that no planes were flying. "Our bosses said nobody is there, neither by plan nor in reality," the Russian said. "Maybe it is a UFO then," the Georgian controller responded.