Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's plane was buzzed by a NATO F-16 fighter jet as it flew over the Baltic Sea on Wednesday, prompting a Russian military jet to warn the NATO plane off.
A video of the incident broadcast on a TV channel run by the Russian Ministry of Defence showed an F-16 flying parallel with the minister's plane at a short distance. It was not clear which air force the F-16 belonged to.
A Russian Sukhoi-27 fighter jet is then seen inserting itself between the F-16 and the minister's plane before tilting its wings from side to side to show the missiles it is carrying. The F-16 is then seen distancing itself from the area.
The Baltic Sea has become an area of rising tensions between Moscow and NATO. Earlier this month, Russia scrambled a fighter jet to intercept a nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 strategic bomber it said was flying over the Baltic near its border, in an incident that had echoes of the Cold War.
In a similar episode, Sweden said on Wednesday it had called in Russia's ambassador for talks after a Russian fighter jet buzzed a Swedish military jet on an electronic intelligence gathering mission over the Baltic on Monday.
"The Russian plane's actions were out of the ordinary ... in terms of the distance between the planes which was at certain times very small," the Swedish military said in a statement.
The episode involving Shoigu's plane occurred when the minister was en route to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad for a meeting to discuss how well Russia's western flank was defended. Footage of what happened was filmed by someone on Shoigu's plane.
The Kremlin referred questions about the incident to the defence ministry, which did not immediately comment. It has said in the past that all Russian flights over the Baltic are conducted in strict accordance with international law.
Russian politicians called the episode the latest in a string of "provocations," a day after the Russian defence ministry said an RC-135 U.S. reconnaissance plane had swerved dangerously near a Russian fighter jet over the Baltic and that another RC-135 had been intercepted.
The Pentagon had a different version of events.
Apparently referring to the same episode, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the U.S. aircraft "did nothing to provoke this behaviour."
The Pentagon said the intercept had been unsafe and accused the Russian pilot of flying too fast and having "poor control" over his SU-27 fighter jet.