BRUSSELS. Aug 14 (Interfax) - NATO was not aware of who was aboard the aircraft which was identified over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday by allied fighter jets on patrol, a NATO official told Interfax in Brussels.
"A Russian aircraft, escorted by at least one Russian fighter jet, was tracked over the Baltic Sea earlier today", the official said when asked to comment on the close approach to the aircraft carrying Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu by a NATO F-18 fighter, which was then drawn away by Russian Su-27s.
"Jets from NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission were scrambled to identify the aircraft, which flew close to Allied airspace. Once identification of the aircraft had taken place, the NATO jets returned to base. NATO has no information as to who was on board," the official said.
"NATO Air Policing is a peacetime mission, which aims to preserve the security of Alliance airspace," a statement on the NATO website says.
"It is a collective task and involves the continuous presence - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - of fighter aircraft and crews, which are ready to react quickly to airspace violations.
"[It is] a purely defensive mission, which involves the 24/7 presence of fighter aircraft, which are ready to react quickly to airspace violations.
NATO members assist those Allies who are without the necessary means to provide air policing of their own territory."
The F-18 fighter attempted to approach Shoigu's aircraft over the Baltics but was pushed aside by Russia's Su-27s, the Rossiya-24 television channel said earlier on Tuesday.
The defense minister's aircraft was escorted by two Baltic Fleet Su-27 fighters from Kaliningrad to Moscow.
Later the Russian Defense Ministry posted footage from inside the aircraft, showing one of the Su-27s pushing the NATO fighter aside.