The Soviet Union still existed back then.
When the Soviet Union fell, that was curtailed for a while.
I remember the NAF overseas had an ongoing contest of the best photograph of Russian crewmembers and would blow them up to frame for the hallways of the facility. They would wave, glare or stare at the P3 crews.
“When the Soviet Union fell, that was curtailed for a while.”
The old Soviet Union fell in 1991. And their government and military work was in disarray. But it was only a short time. But prior, The ritual was played out thousands of times between 1961 and 1991 as US and Canadian air defense fighters scrambled to engage long-range Soviet bombers and reconnaissance aircraft on the periphery of North American airspace. I was friends with a couple of pilots from the CAC that rotated out there every couple of months. NWADS still is in operation today and in use. Their building is right across the street from the golf course at what was earlier McChord AFB now part of JBLM.
The Soviet Air Defense Force didn’t turn into a piece of the Russian Military Forces until 1998. But during the years beweeen the fall and the refigeration the what was left flew. The VVS participated in the First Chechen War (1994–1996) and the Second Chechen War (1999–2002). And the flyovers continued over the Bering Sea. And their hellos to us slowed but did not stop. One such incident is his in 2006:
https://www.norad.mil/Newsroom/Article/578117/norad-intercepts-russian-aircraft/
They still play this game of chicken today.
wy69