MOSCOW. Feb 7 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian fighters did not violate Japanese airspace, Lt. Col. Alexander Gordeyev, a spokesman for Russia's Eastern Military District, told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.
"All flights of the district's aircraft are strictly regulated by the command and are carried out under supervision of air traffic control bodies. Military aircraft flights are registered by objective control equipment and are carried out in strict accordance with international regulations on using airspace, without violating borders of other states," Gordeyev said.
"The district's planes carried out planned flights over the Sea of Japan on Thursday," Gordeyev said.
"The Eastern Military District forces are conducting planned exercises in the area of the Kuril Ridge, in which an artillery unit, fighter, attack and army aircraft, Pacific Fleet ships, and personnel of the border units stationed in the island zone are involved," Gordeyev said.
The Japanese Defense Ministry earlier stated that two Russian fighters had entered Japanese airspace on Thursday. Local media reported that the Japanese Foreign Ministry had expressed protest against the incident to the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. The Japanese Defense Ministry said four Japanese fighters had been scrambled to intercept the Russian planes.
Russian Pacific Fleet spokesman Cap. 1st Rank Roman Martov told Interfax-AVN earlier that Pacific Fleet anti-submarine planes carried out training flights over the Sea of Okhotsk and the Southern Kuril Islands.
"The crews practiced their piloting skills in complicated meteorological conditions. During the planned flights, they also reconnoitered the ice situation in the strait area in the interests of civilian navigation," Martov said.