Russia's surprise air force drills dwarf rival NATO's in Arctic

Russia's Defence Ministry said Tuesday that more than 100 military planes were participating in a surprise test of combat readiness, dwarfing a similar exercise by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO in the Arctic this week.
According to dpa, NATO has said its show of force - an annual exercise that this year involves about 100 planes and 4,000 military personnel from nine countries - is "one of the largest of its kind."
But Russia's exercise, announced by the Defence Ministry on Monday, is exponentially larger, with a total of 250 planes and helicopters and 12,000 personnel at western, southern and far-eastern bases.
Russia's one-upmanship over the West comes as tensions flare over the Ukraine conflict and Russia shows increased economic and military interest in the Arctic.
Russia in March conducted its own drills in the Arctic, involving 38,000 military personnel, as well as aircraft and submarines. This week Russia's drills were not reported to involve the region.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the country's military and aerospace industries, as well as Arctic development, suggested on Sunday that Russian tanks could invade the West.
Rogozin, who is not allowed to travel to the United States or the European Union because of sanctions over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis, said on state television channel Rossia-1 that "tanks don't need visas."
Last week NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the Western military alliance is concerned about the size, scale and frequency of Russia's snap exercises, three of which have involved 80,000 troops over the past year.
Stoltenberg called for Russia to give more advanced notification about such exercises in an effort to be more "transparent."
NATO's Arctic exercise, led by Norway over the next two weeks, is involving three non-member countries: the fellow Scandinavian nations of Finland and Sweden, as well as Switzerland.
Members of the European Parliament from Sweden and Germany have opposed NATO's Arctic Challenge Exercise because "in light of the present situation with Russia it can be seen as an escalation."
"We need to stop the sabre-rattling and put all our efforts to start peaceful talks, or I fear we will fail in building real and lasting security in our part of the world," Malin Björk of Sweden said last week in statement by the leftist GUE/NGL faction.
Last week the Swedish air force scrambled two fighter jets to track two Russian bombers in international airspace off Sweden.