I heard on Clay and Buck today that they buzzed it 19 times before the collision...we harass foreign aircraft as well...of course Hannity was saying that Putin probably ordered it personally LOL. But I agree with you, most likely, they didn't want to have a collison and escalate, but they wanted to harass as is common procedure for many nations.Maybe both. It may jack with the sensors some.
To me it looked like that ruskie pilot just came in too hot and misjudged. I'd bet he was in a world of **** when he landed.