Russian SU-27 Fighter performed a dangerous intercept of a USAF Recon plane.

via Alert 5 from the Free Beacon.

A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft on Thursday in the latest military provocation by Moscow over the Baltic Sea, the U.S. European Command said Saturday.
“On April 14, a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft flying a routine route in international airspace over the Baltic Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” said Navy Capt. Danny Hernandez.
“This intercept comes shortly after the unsafe Russian encounters with USS Donald Cook,” he added. “There have been repeated incidents over the last year where Russian military aircraft have come close enough to other air and sea traffic to raise serious safety concerns, and we are very concerned with any such behavior.”
Hernandez said the U.S. aircraft, a militarized Boeing 707 jet, was operating in international airspace “and at no time crossed into Russian territory.”
“This unsafe and unprofessional air intercept has the potential to cause serious harm and injury to all aircrews involved,” he said. “More importantly, the unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries.”
According to Hernandez, the Su-27 carried out “erratic and aggressive maneuvers” by approaching the RC-135 at a high rate of speed from the side.
The Russian jet “then proceeded to perform an aggressive maneuver that posed a threat to the safety of the U.S. aircrew in the RC-135U,” the spokesman said.
“More specifically, the SU-27 closed within 50 feet of the wing-tip of the RC-135 and conducted a barrel roll starting from the left side of the aircraft, going over the top of the aircraft and ended up to the right of the aircraft,” he said.

A barrel roll over a RC-135?

What the fuck is going on with the Russians?

This is batshit crazy.  What is the endgame here?  How do they see this helping?  More specifically what is the plan here?

I've considered it and I at first thought that this was a play at US presidential politics.  I nixed that idea rather quickly though.  They would I assume want a more respectful foreign policy approach than the "Russia is the enemy" (which they're enforcing with their actions lately) meme that we've heard from the State Dep and Pentagon.

I can't figure it out.  One thing is clear though.  All the "normalcy clowns" can pound sand.  This is a type of aggressiveness we didn't see even during the cold war (at least on the air and sea.... the 2nd ACR had the border mission during the icy times and it was a wild, wooly and EXTREMELY dangerous place....more dangerous than the N. Korean border today).