Russia's President Putin addresses audience in Ulan Bator
Russia's President Vladimir Putin addresses the audience as he takes part in festivities to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in Ulan Bator, September 3, 2014. Reuters

Russian military buzzed Canadian warship HMCS Toronto while it was participating in a NATO exercise on Sunday.

According to Canadian Defence Minister Rob Nicholson, Russian military aircrafts had circled the warship over the Black Sea. Reports confirm that three Russian aircrafts, one AN-26 surveillance plane and a couple of SU-24 fighter planes, were involved in the incident. Nicholson called the incident "unnecessarily provocative." "While the Russian military aircraft that circled the HMCS Toronto did not in any way pose a threat to the Canadian ship, their actions were unnecessarily provocative and risk escalating tensions even further," he said.

The Canadian frigate is on a training exercise at present. The buzz indicated that Russia was taking a close look at the happenings in the US-Ukraine training exercise. At least one of the Russian aircrafts came as close as 300 metres from HMCS Toronto. The Globe and Mail reported that, according a military source, Russia's action had been expected. "They're going to play cat and mouse with us for as long as we're there," the source said.

Russia's action, however, cannot be regarded as a hostile one. On the other hand, it showed that Russia was vigilant about the training exercise which was planned long before Russia's annexation of Crimea had taken place. This is the 13th occasion when Ukraine is taking part in a NATO exercise since it expressed its desire to join the association. The training exercise includes vessels from Spain, Turkey, Georgia and Romania as well.

According to Wall Street Journal, Russian President Vladimir Putin, "as a former KGB agent working in East Germany," must be having the required experience and training to deal with U.S. Present Barack Obama who is "half as clever and twice as weak as he imagines himself to be." The U.S. daily said that Obama was not "an impediment" but "an opportunity" for Putin.

The Russian president has, meanwhile, been criticised by several prominent international personalities. The most recent comment came from the Dalai Lama. The Nobel Peace Prize winner said that Putin was apparently trying to rebuild the Berlin Wall. But he is hurting his own country by doing this. Isolation is suicide," he said.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au