About 100 fighter jets from the United States and eight European nations began an Arctic training exercise in the Nordic nations on Monday, a region worried by increased Russian military activity.

The exercise, based in the north of Norway, Sweden and Finland with 4,000 personnel, is meant to test cooperation among Arctic nations near Russia. It was planned before Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region last year raised regional tensions. …

http://www.ibtimes.com/about-100-us-european-jets-join-arctic-exercise-near-russia-1936751

So it was planned before the west overthrew the ukranian government and precipitated the annexation of crimea?  That makes me feel better.