The Russian planes ignored requests to identify themselves and were escorted to Russia's Baltic Kaliningrad exclave, the Dutch Defense Ministry said.
Commenting on a series of intercepts carried out in recent days NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said: "On Monday (8 December) fighter jets assigned to NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission carried out several intercepts of groups of Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Norway.
Over 30 Russian aircraft of various types, including bombers, fighters and transport aircraft, were involved.
"All remained in international airspace. This follows a series of intercepts of similar types of Russian aircraft by NATO fighter jets over the weekend.
"On Sunday afternoon (7 December), four Tu-95 (Bear) Russian strategic bomber aircraft and two Tu-22M (Backfire) long-range bomber aircraft were intercepted over the Baltic Sea by Portuguese F-16 fighter jets assigned to NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission.
"Later that day Canadian CF-188 and Portuguese F-16 fighters assigned to NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission intercepted three Tu-134 aircraft (used for training and moving passengers) as well as one An-72 (transport aircraft), again over the Baltic Sea.
"About an hour later, NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission intercepted two Tu-134 aircraft (used for training and moving passengers) as well as one An-72 (transport aircraft), also over the Baltic Sea. All these intercepts occurred in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.
While most of the intercepts conducted by NATO over the Baltic Sea are routine, the first intercept on Sunday of six Russian strategic and long-range bombers represented a significant level of activity by Russia.
"We saw similar activity on 31 October when four Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers and four Il-78 tanker aircraft few from Russia, over the North Sea, and down to the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Portugal. They were intercepted by Norwegian, British, and Portuguese aircraft.
"Russian military activity has been considerable during the last few months. Such activity can be destabilising and potentially dangerous, if international norms are not respected," Lungescu said.
