Russian jet alarm interrupts Spain PM's press briefing
Incident occurred at a NATO airbase in Lithuania
09 July, 10:14"This justifies the presence of Spanish forces in Lithuania," Sanchez said when the press conference resumed. "Our press conference was interrupted by a real case," Nauseda added. The Russian jets took off from the nearby Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and had their onboard transponders switched off, major Andrius Dilda, the spokesperson of Lithuanian military defence staff, told AFP. The pilots did not present the flight plan and did not maintain radio communications with the regional traffic control centre, Dilda added. Similar incidents in the Baltic sea region happen several times a week. NATO has been guarding Baltic skies since 2004, when the formerly Soviet-ruled Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined the defence alliance but lacked the air power to monitor their own airspace. (ANSA-AFP).