BBC lauds RAF for keeping nasty Russian planes at bay… 2,000km away from the UK

The BBC has struck again, plastering another alarming report across their website on Friday to warn the British people about big, bad, scary Russia. So what did those Russkies do this time? They flew a plane near their own border.

Called out on Twitter by Charles Shoebridge, a former army officer, Scotland Yard detective and counter terrorism intelligence officer, his post points out a few details the BBC missed: The Russian plane was in international airspace and the Black Sea –over 2,000km from the United Kingdom– is actually on Russia’s doorstep.

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“RAF fighter jets have intercepted a Russian military aircraft over the Black Sea for the second time in a week," the Ministry of Defence told the BBC. “The Typhoons were scrambled from a base in Romania on Thursday after a Be-12 maritime patrol aircraft was seen heading south-west from Crimea towards NATO airspace.”

The keyword here: towards. In other words, a Russian plane, at its own border, thousands of kilometers away from the United Kingdom was seen heading over neutral waters in, roughly, the direction of NATO airspace.

The irony was not lost on folks in the Twittesphere. “Don’t let facts get in the way of some pro-war propaganda!” said one user, tagging the BBC.

Another user dubbed the BBC’s report of UK planes agitating Russian planes for flying at their own border as “very Orwellian,” while another just suggested an alternative, more accurate, headline.

This isn’t even the first time this week that the UK’s defence force has proudly and bravely taken on Russians at their own border. On Tuesday, the UK’s royal air force spruiked its global air-policing prowess, boasting that RAF Typhoons based in Romania were launched “in response to two suspected Russian Su-30 Flanker aircraft operating near NATO airspace over the Black Sea.” In other words, near Russia’s own border yet again. You’d think a country policing its own borders was illegal or something.

READ MORE: Fake intercept? Russian MoD dismisses UK claims of chasing off six Su-24 bombers over Black Sea

Additionally, Tuesday’s NATO mission was such a roaring success that royal air force pilots said they didn’t even get “within visual range to see” the Russian jets. So Russian planes flew about in the sky kind-of near to NATO jets –but not close enough to see them– and then they went on their merry way.

The BBC’s spin makes it almost look like the UK wants Russia to “go away and shut up” – or is that something that Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson actually once said? It’s hard to tell what’s what these days.

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