Russia Plays Wizards Chess

According to the Harry Potter series, Wizards Chess is a dangerous game where a bad move can result is disaster, even death. That is one way to look at the way Russia is throwing their strategic bomber forces around the north Atlantic and north Pacific. Before someone dismisses this as not a big deal, lets keep in mind this is the primary air force platform in the Russian inventory for delivering nuclear weapons, and as far as we know, still the bombers primary mission. From the New York Times:

A Russian Air Force bomber briefly violated Japanese airspace on Saturday over an uninhabited island south of Tokyo, prompting Japan to scramble 22 fighter jets and issue a protest with Moscow, the Foreign Ministry here said. The Russian Air Force denied the intrusion.

The Russian Tupolev 95 left Japanese airspace within three minutes of warnings by Japanese Air Force jets over Sofugan in the Izu island chain, 400 miles south of Tokyo, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Japan has filed a protest, and as could be expected no one was available for comment. Russia denied the incident ever happened, but this isn't exactly stealth technology we are talking about, and Japan has no reason to make it up.

This is a dangerous game of intimidation, the NYTs goes on to explain.

The situation occurred after Japan held an annual rally on Thursday to demand the return of a disputed island chain, called the Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, that Russia seized in the last days of World War II.

I can't think of many things that would be more intimidating to the Japanese than flying a bomber designed for nuclear payloads over Japanese soil to send a signal. Doesn't sound to me like the Russians care much for cultural sensitivity.