Moscow to Respond to Bern's Explanations Over Jets Tracking Russian Gov't Plane

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Friday, military aircraft with the Swiss insignia escorted the plane with the Russian delegation, including journalists and Alexander Fomin, the director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, heading for the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Peru. The Russian embassy in Switzerland said that it had asked the Swiss authorities to explain the incident.

"I will stress one more time that a rather close distance, to which these fighter jets had approached [the Russian plane], has caused serious concerns of the passengers of the Russian aircraft. We have not left unnoticed the media reports on the issue and our embassy in Switzerland has already requested explanations of the Swiss side. We are expecting the explanations and will respond in an appropriate manner after we will receive them," Zakharova said as broadcast by the Rossiya 24 television channel.

The jets pulled away when the Russian plane reached the Swiss border. Western fighter jets regularly chase Russian warplanes in international airspace. Accompanying Russian passenger aircraft, however, is something new.