OH, the fun we have. Back to the 70's and 80's, playing tag at high altitude, the Cold War follies have been resurrected.
Such deterring flights by the Russians are not uncommon. A notable instance happened in mid-March, triggered by Sweden's move to join NATO. The Russian Federation dispatched a Tu-22M3 bomber alongside MiG-31 fighters, equipped with Kinzhal missiles, over the Baltic Sea. On Sunday, March 24, a similar event unfolded. The deployment of the Russian MiG-31 was apparently in response to the presence of two American B-1B bombers near Russian airspace over the Barents Sea, after having traversed Norwegian airspace.
According to The Barents Observer, the US aircraft never entered Russian airspace. The dispatched MiG-31 escorted the bombers away from Russia. Accompanying the B-1B bombers over the Barents Sea were three KC-135 Stratotanker aerial tankers, which were not subjected to interception. This incident coincided with the NATO Nordic Response 2024 exercises.