I love the fact that Russia are still using the same plane they used in the 60's to do the fly by's. The old Bear is still as ugly as sin, but still a good weapons platform even 55 years down the track. I understand the ones in current service were built in the 80's and 90's.
From a political standpoint, I think it's just the same old same old. If you are in international waters there is not much you can do to prevent a peaceful fly past with no overly malicious intent. If there was any real malice intended they would have stood off and launched cruise missles rather than close to point blank range. Only iron bombs still need you to do that and these things would not be sent on a seek and estroy mission against a carrier group with those.
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