White House: Obama Did Not Raise Russia’s Buzzing of U.S. Ships in His Call with Putin

President Obama phoned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, today, but did not bring up the recent "buzzing" of U.S. ships by Russian fighter jets. The White House also downplayed the incidents, calling them "not particularly unusual."

"That did not come up in the call with the two presidents," Josh Earnest told CBS's Mark Knoller in today's White House press conference. "Those kinds of activities are destablizing and a source of some concern, but they are not particularly unusual."

"There is an already well-established channel for expressing our concerns about those kinds of incidents from the U.S. military attaché in Moscow to his Russian military counterpart," Earnest said. "Those concerns were raised at that level and were not escalated beyond that."

Knoller asked about a more recent incident involving a Russian fighter jet "barrel-rolling" over a U.S. reconnaissance jet. 

"This is a good illustration of how these kinds of incidents -- while provocative and concerning -- are not particularly unusual," Earnest replied.