On Way to Helsinki, Putin Violated NATO Airspace

Two Russian military planes, including one carrying President Vladimir Putin to Helsinki, Finland, briefly entered NATO airspace without clearance on Monday, according to Estonia. Roland Murof, a spokesman for the Estonian military, says Putin's Ilyushin-96 airplane crossed 1.7 miles into Estonian territory near the island of Vaindloo over 50 seconds without having filed a flight plan or contacted air traffic control, reports the New York Times. It follows "a long pattern" of such airspace violations by Russia, which "go up when something political is going on," Murof adds, indicating that the incursion was meant to show NATO's supposed vulnerability in the Baltic Sea. The AP describes two other violations last week. (More Russia stories.)