The scrambling of Nato fighter jets occurred as Russia flexed its military muscles across three oceans today and President Vladimir Putin sealed a $1 billion arms deal in Asia.

Fourteen Tu95MC Bear nuclear strategic bombers took off late last night for what Russian air force chiefs described as long-range patrol missions over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

Alexander Drobyshevsky, an air force spokesman, said that six bombers had landed back at base today and eight were still flying, with each aircraft on a mission lasting up to 17 hours.

In an echo of the Cold War chess match that played out continuously in the skies around Europe, he acknowledged that "virtually all of our strategic planes are being shadowed by Nato fighters". Colonel Drobyshevsky announced on Monday that a dozen bombers would practice firing cruise missiles in exercises over the Arctic.

He later told Interfax that up to 20 Nato jet fighters, including F-16s and Tornados, had scrambled to intercept the Russian bombers, but that "there were no incidents".

The flights are the latest example of Mr Putin's ability to irritate the West with bold strokes that cost the Kremlin very little and delight many ordinary Russians, who enjoy seeing Nato discomfited.

Mr Putin has already pulled Russia out of the landmark Conventional Forces in Europe treaty on arms limitation, and railed against US proposals to install a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech republic.

With presidential elections only six months away, such assertive nationalism helps to convince many Russians that he has restored their country's former status in the world. State media gave extensive coverage on Wednesday to Mr Putin's tour of a nuclear submarine base in Russia's Far East ahead of his trip to the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Australia.

Some critics have suggested that a siege mentality is being fostered deliberately to create support for a presidential successor from the "siloviki", the Kremlin's hard-line military and security service faction.

As Nato scrambled its jets, Mr Putin was being féted in Indonesia as the first Russian leader to visit the country since Nikita Khrushchev in 1960. His visit sealed a contract for Indonesia to buy Russian fighter planes, submarines and helicopters with a $1 billion loan provided by Moscow.

Indonesia turned to Russia for arms after the US and European Union imposed embargoes in 1999 over human rights abuses in East Timor. The EU lifted its ban in 2000 and the US in 2005, but the world's most populous Muslim nation has continued to seek Russian military hardware.

Mr Putin's visit marked the latest stage in Russia's efforts to convert its economic recovery into a global political and military reach, which has already seen it restore influence in India, the Middle East and Africa as well as build ties in Latin America with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Russian and Chinese special forces are currently on joint counter-terrorism exercises in Moscow, further evidence of their growing military relationship. Thousands of Russian and Chinese troops took part in the first military exercises organised by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation last month, a grouping seen in some quarters as a potential rival to Nato.

Russian officials have proposed an alliance between the SCO and a separate body representing most of the former Soviet republics. The foreign ministers of China, Russia and India also held talks in Delhi in February in an attempt to forge a partnership on key security issues.

Mr Putin announced last month that Russian bombers would resume strategic patrols for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, when they were stopped because the Kremlin could not afford to pay for then. He noted that other countries had maintained a military presence in the skies in the past 15 years, saying that this threatened Russia's security.

The Bear bombers can carry nuclear warheads, but Russia's head of strategic aviation, General Pavel Androsov, said last week that they were not armed and that pilot training was the main goal of the patrols.

However, the resumption of flights comes at a time of heightened strains between Russia and the West. The Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Monday that the missile defence shield was a "red line" for Moscow, along with plans by the US and EU to back independence for Kosovo from Russia's ally Serbia.

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