От Стратфор: ... Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s version of events is that "A pair of supersonic Tu-160 aircraft followed the entire Norwegian coastline, simulated the launch of Kh-55 cruise missiles, turned round, and took the same route back to their base area... (мисля, че все пак руснаците би трябвало да знаят най-добре каква учебна задача са имали техните самолети) Въпросните полети са били част от учение "Запад 99", за което Стратфор пише: 0230 GMT, 990702 U.S. Officials Try to Downplay Russian Exercises ......... Yes, they aimed to test the Western response. And yes, they aimed to show that Russia remains a force to be reckoned with. And while the White House is publicly attempting to downplay the entire event, at best offering a psychoanalysis of Russia’s inferiority complex, someone in Washington got the message sufficiently to leak the Iceland interception to the press. Why? Because while the exercises may not have posed a threat to the U.S., they signaled a desire to threaten, and that foreshadows future Russian policy decisions that will threaten the U.S. and the West. The exercises played-out a defense against attacks on Kaliningrad and Belarus, but they also staged what were clearly offensive drills, including the launch of long range strategic missiles against targets in Central Asia from Backfire bombers that had first flown over the North Pole. The Russian newspaper Izvestia reported that the missile launches from both Bears and Backfires were explicitly intended to model contained nuclear strikes against surrounding countries .......... Either way, while Washington can downplay two Bear bombers, it would do well not to downplay the significance of the exercises as a whole. Short of outright attack, what more can Russia do to get across the message that it is more than willing to consider the West its foe and behave as such? (http://www.stratfor.com/asia/commentary/c9907021533.htm)