Journalist Vitaliy Portnikov shared his opinions with Espreso TV.“Moscow is clearly testing the EU’s red lines with these airspace provocations. The key question is what happens after the first Russian manned aircraft is shot down. We remember how Turkey’s downing of a Russian plane led to a sharp cooling in relations with Moscow. There was no direct confrontation, but the propaganda hysteria in Russia was enormous — perhaps even deliberately stoked to justify later actions in the Middle East. I don’t think, however, that the downing itself was part of the Kremlin’s initial political plan at the time.”The journalist stressed that provocations in NATO airspace may be part of the Kremlin’s strategy to deliberately escalate tensions. The downing of a Russian aircraft or UAV, he argued, could be used as a pretext for new threats against Europe.“There is another telling example,” Portnikov recalled. “At the end of the first stage of the second Karabakh war, the Azerbaijani army shot down a Russian military helicopter. Almost immediately, a joint statement by the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Armenia was released. It both ended the war and proved unfavorable to Yerevan. In other words, Putin needed a reason to intervene, but he wanted to act as a victim, not as a passive observer.Perhaps the same logic applies now. With these provocations, the Kremlin may want Russia to appear as the victim — giving Putin grounds to threaten the EU and NATO with more decisive and open actions. The crucial detail is that, for Moscow, there is a difference between manned and unmanned aerial vehicles. It may even be deliberately seeking to have its own military targets shot down in order to justify moving to a new level of escalation.”Aalborg Airport was temporarily closed overnight on Friday following reports of suspicious objects, forcing the cancellation of at least two flights. Similar drone activity disrupted airports in Denmark and Norway earlier in the week.