Russian incident

TORONTO — Fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a Russian bomber in the Arctic as it approached Canadian airspace on the eve of President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa last week, Canada's defense minister said Friday.

Peter MacKay said the bomber never entered Canadian airspace. But he said two Canadian CF-18 jets met the bomber in international airspace and sent a "strong signal that they should back off."

"They met a Russian aircraft that was approaching Canadian airspace, and as they have done in previous occasions they sent very clear signals that are understood, that the aircraft was to turnaround, turn tail, and head back to their airspace, which it did," MacKay said.

"I'm not going to stand here and accuse the Russians of having deliberately done this during the presidential visit, but it was a strong coincidence," he said of the Feb. 18 incident.

Obama arrived in Ottawa the next day and Canadian security services were focused on his arrival. But the Arctic incident did not stretch Canada's resources, he said.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said in a statement Friday that the plane never encroached on Canadian airspace and that Canada had been told about the flight beforehand.

"The statements by Canada's defense minister about flights of our aircraft are absolutely incomprehensible. They are nothing but farce," Drobyshevsky said.

Soviet aircraft regularly flew near North American airspace during the Cold War but stopped after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Several years ago, Russian jets resumed these types of flights, according to U.S. and Canadian authorities