Congratulations, Mr. Obama. Here's a missile deployment.

[AkSaber]

No, but you still shouldn't fly the aerial equivalent of a Disaster Area concert on mock attacks against North America.

When did this happen?

Fairly recently- Tu-95 and Tu-160s have been doing the mock attacks the former was doing on a very frequent basis during the Cold War, including one on Hull (maybe they don't like the football team).

The Tu-95 is an insanely loud aircraft, which can be picked up by submarine sonar underwater and routinely causes hearing problems among crews and intercepting pilots.

Whoa, I never knew that about the Tu-95. Are all turboprop heavy bombers like that?

[AkSaber]

Let's look at this from Russia's perspective. The first President Bush and President Clinton both said that NATO's presence and military infrastructure wouldn't extend into Eastern Europe. Four and a half years after Clinton's first inauguration, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, were invited to join NATO. Five years after that, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria, were invited to join in what is NATO's largest ever expansion.

So, what the Russians have to be thinking is that we haven't kept our word about increasing our military influence in Eastern Europe, so why should this instance be any different.

Also, the Russians have offered to let us put a missile defense system in Azerbaijan. They wouldn't be bothered with that. Besides, of all the independent countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union (former Soviet Socialist Republics), it is Azerbaijan that is described as our closest ally among them. Keep in mind that 3 former Soviet Socialist Republics (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) are in NATO.