Putin playing “chicken” in Eastern Europe, explains the Russian military expert

More unidentified drones were spotted on Denmark Thursday evening near military air areas as a Russian landing vessel, with its answering machine of the deactivated location, was found strolling in waters off the Scandinavian country.

Airport traffic disturbances started on Monday evening after several unidentified drones stopped airspace at Copenhagen airport.

Russia was worrying behind it.

The disturbances continued this week and the tension was further reinforced on Thursday with reports, citing Allied Air Command, who said that Hungarian NATO fighters intercepted five Russian fighter planes above the Baltic Sea near Latvia.

The incidents took place in a context of the rise in tensions in Europe following a series of Russian drone incursions in Poland and Romania at the beginning of the month, as well as the alleged violation of Lithuanian airspace by Russian fighter planes at the end of last week.

Professor of the Royal Military College, Sean Maloney, an expert in Russian military strategy, said that the increase in Russian pressure was supposed to leave the impression that NATO can do nothing except posture.

“I would consider this as an escalation given the way she focuses on Denmark,” said Maloney. “This aims to distract from what is happening in Moldova – or to remove the intelligence, surveillance and recognition of Ukraine.”

Earlier this week, the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, warned that the independence of her country was threatened before the parliamentary elections. In this country, the police arrested dozens of people and accused them of participation in a conspiracy to stir up violent unrest – a Sandu campaign would have been supported by Russia.

“Conclusion: it’s serious,” said Maloney. “(Russian president Vladimir) Putin continues to play chicken, but he keeps it in the gray area.”

Look | Denmark considers to invoke article 4:

Denmark considers to invoke article 4 of NATO after the incursions of the drone

Danish Defense Minister Troels, Lund Poulsen, said that the government had not yet decided if he would ask for consultations under NATO article 4 after drone incursions that briefly closed two of his airports and affected military facilities. The officials say that the incidents were hybrid attacks intended to spread fear, but that the officials did not know who was behind them. Read more: www.cbc.ca/1.7643143

The tension was further reinforced while France proceeded to its annual exercise on the nuclear desert known as the Operation Poker in the sky during the western part of the country on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to flight monitoring data.

At the same time, military commercial publications in the United States reported on Thursday that American stealth bombers B-2 Spirit launched from Whiteman Air Force, just south of Knob Noster, MO., participated in the nuclear exercise of the American strategic command known as the Skymaster exercise.

A Canadian parliamentary committee summoned audiences on Thursday to study the incursions of the Russian drone in Europe.

The Tiparty Foreign Affairs Committee has heard senior defense officials and global affairs.

In response to the penetration of the Russian Drone of Polish airspace at the beginning of the month, NATO launched the Eastern Sentry operation, which aims to strengthen the air defenses in Eastern Europe.

Ty Curran, the deputy director general of the international security policy at the Ministry of National Defense, testified that Canada examines what – if necessary – can contribute to the operation. The Canadian Royal Air Force reduced its European deployments while it is preparing to start receiving a fleet of new F-35 fighters at the start of next year.

“We are currently working with our NATO colleagues, the office staff (Supreme Allied Commander Europe),” said Curran in French.

“We are considering options to strengthen air defense and also to strengthen capacity in order to use drones and capacity in Poland. In defense, we examine the management options in this way. We formalize this analysis. And we will present it to our superiors.”

Curran added that there has been no penetration of Canadian airspace and the North American Defense Command (Norad) is monitoring the situation.

Norad, however, reported on Wednesday that Russian planes were detected operating in the Alaska air defense area, the area just outside American airspace.

Conservative deputy Michael Chong said that he feared NATO will forcefully respond to the incursions in European airspace.

“I speculate that if these (Russian) jets off the coast of Alaska (air defense zone) had entered American airspace, they would have been slaughtered by the US Air Force, and that is precisely why they remained in international airspace,” said Chong.

“The corollary of this takes place in Eastern Europe … Russia believes that NATO does not have the same deterrent posture, and we find ourselves with situations like what happened in the Estonian airspace recently.”