That's because the Russian boomer fleets are based in the Kola and Kamchatka peninsulas, which can deploy directly into international waters. Sailing into the Baltic, from either the North Sea, Kaliningrad, or St Petersburg means sailing into the territorial waters of NATO countries to do it. Of course it's provocative, you dunce.
That's not the point, the point is the USA crying fowl at Russia's submarines being armed with Nuclear Weapons, while tacitly admitting ours are not.