No surprise here. With increased funds russian strategic aviation started training. These kind of training missions are normal and usuall thing for all countries what do posses strategic aviation.
This only catched attention becouse in the last 15 years Russian strategic aviation stopped flying training missions. I'm sure in 1-2 years only military experts will know about new exersises - as these missions rarery catched public attention during Cold War. There is simply nothing interesting here, just routine military training.
Btw, I agree very much with this. The Russians are slowly getting back on their feet. It is not really provocations per se, as most major players do this. Also, it has no comparison to the Cold War, despite areas of friction like energy, and ballistic missile defence in Europe.
That some use this to play domestic politics in Russia and other countries, is what it is.
However, because of the spending hiatus and resistance to reform, the Russian armed forces have been (and still is) very much in need of an overhaul of equipment and personnel, both in terms of quantity and average quality. It seems the process is underway, and the increased level of activity from strategic aviation is not only politics, but also a symptom of this. It will be interesting to follow.
(That being said, I find the concept of expanding the Russian army four or five times with conscripts in a few weeks, then go steamrolling NATO, simply evade any notion of what is required in training and logistics for it to be a minimally competent offensive maneuver force. It's pure numbers, not real world, just like comparing it with how many active personnel NATO has is meaningless. Though, I couldn't resist it.
My point being; war potential can't be realised just like that.)
