MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/: Moscow once unilaterally halted the flights of its strategic aircraft but resumed them after Washington had failed to respond in kind, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1's "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" show.
"We did not do it in the 1990s, almost until the middle of the 2000s, because we sought to extend the service life of planes and did not have enough jet fuel," Putin explained. He added that back then, Russia unilaterally halted that kind of flights. "However, our US partners continued to carry out such flights. We waited - I think, for about five years - and then resumed the flights. There is nothing surprising in that, we have been conducting such flights for several years now," the Russian president noted.
Putin earlier pointed out that the US and its NATO allies were conducting unexpected drills in the Black Sea, which involved strategic aircraft along with warships. According to the Russian leader, it partly explains "where and how [Russian] strategic missile carriers conduct their lights." Although Western countries are using "rather old aircraft" during the drills, their warships are equipped with strategic weapons that posing a serious challenge for Russia, Putin added.
He also said that Russia's joint military exercises with Belarus involved strategic aircraft. However, Western countries also "keep conducting both regular and unexpected drills of various sort.".
