LONDON, Sept 6: Britain’s air force scrambled four Tornado warplanes on Thursday to intercept eight Russian long-range bombers, but the Russian planes did not enter British air space, the ministry of defence said.

Russia’s defence ministry said 14 strategic bombers had been flying long-range patrol operations but none approached a foreign state and most were accompanied by fighter jets from NATO countries.

Relations between London and Moscow are at their worst since the Cold War, but the Foreign Office said Britain did not see a recent Russian decision to resume of long-range patrols as a cause for alarm and that “normal preparedness” was in place.Russia’s refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard suspected of murdering emigre Alexander Litvinenko in London last year, led to tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats this year.

“In the early hours of this morning four RAF (Royal Air Force) Tornado F3 aircraft ... were launched to intercept eight Russian Bear aircraft which had not entered UK air space,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said relations with Russia “continue as normal outside the unresolved extradition request”.

The Tupolev Tu-95, codenamed “Bear” by NATO, is Russia’s equivalent of the U.S. B-52 bomber and is a Cold War icon.

Russia’s defence ministry said 14 strategic bombers had started long-range routine patrol operations on Thursday evening over the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic.

“The planes flew only over neutral water and did not approach the air space of a foreign state,” it said. “Practically all the planes were accompanied by fighters from NATO countries.”

It is at least the second time in recent months Britain has scrambled jets to intercept Russian bombers.

The sorties by Russian bombers appeared to be the latest of the regular long-range patrols that President Vladimir Putin announced last

month would be resumed after a gap following the collapse of the Soviet Union.—Reuters