I would have to say the Russians are testing the water or flexing their muscle.

If you catch the source of the information, there is a bit more information on Russian flights and you can see the change up on wording concerning the nuke weapons: http://freebeacon.com/bear-bombers-over-guam/

"Defense officials said the bombers tracked over Guam were likely equipped with six Kh-55 or Kh-55SM cruise missiles that can hit targets up to 1,800 miles away with either a high-explosive warhead or a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead." Unless there is actual verification of the payload, the Defense officails should have said "capable of carrying" instead of "likely equipped".

The Kh55 is carried as an internal payload. A visual of the aircraft would not able to confirm or deny that the aircraft was carrying nuclear weapons. This is more than likely a play by the media to catch the readers attention in the article posted by Encore.

Reliable info conerning the TU95: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/bomber/tu-95.htm