Cold War: Approximately 1947 (due to U.S. President Harry Truman’s Truman Doctrine) to 1991 (Operation Desert Storm, collapse of Soviet Union).
During the Cold War it was known as Mikoyan & Gurevich (Микоян и Гуревич), hence MiG (МиГ). The MiG-29 began military service in 1983. NATO reporting name Fulcrum.
From 1983 to 1985 the MiG-29 was kept out of public sight, then the leadership of the Soviet Union changed, adopting a concept called Glasnost which resulted in public demonstrations of the MiG-29 all over the world.
In 1989, the Soviet Union was trying so hard to be ‘open’ that they sent one of their new MiG-29s to an airshow in NATO-Canada.
(See more in Desert Storm: AIRCRAFT GRAVEYARD)
Post Cold War, Balkan Wars, War on Terror, Battle for Ukraine, 1992 to present. Since the end of the Cold War the company is known as Mikoyan and is now part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), but the aircraft are still referred to as MiGs.
In the late 1980s, MiG developed a ‘K’ navalized version of the MiG-29 (first flight 23JUL1988), but there were no takers. In 2004, India decided they wanted the MiG-29K for their small aircraft carrier fleet. The training version MiG-29KUB first flew in 2007. The KUB version can also act as an electronic warfare aircraft.
Apparently, the fact that India liked the MiG-29K influenced the Russian Military Maritime Fleet to buy their own MiG-29Ks in 2009.
In 2011, California Air National Guard F-16s flew to Ukraine to take part in wargame Safe Skies. This video, by Senior Master Sergeant Christopher Drudge, shows a Ukrainian MiG-29UB taxiing past the California F-16s:
In 2016, UAC-Mikoyan introduced a new ‘MiG-29’ called the MiG-35 (which looks a lot like the navalized MiG-29K). NATO calls it the Fulcrum-F.
This is from a NATO promotional video about Poland’s MiG-29 (edited by me), released in Spring 2018:
U.S. Department of Defense video claiming to show Russian MiG-29s operating over war-torn Libya, 05JUN2020:
Indian Air Power, 2021: Includes the MiG-29KUB
NATO-Bulgaria MiG-29 escorting U.S. Air Force B-52H, 24MAY2021, video (no audio) by Senior Airman Daniel Hernandez:
Ukraine Crisis, 2022: SLOVAKIA SUDDENLY RETIRES THEIR MiG-29 FULCRUM, AT NATO’S BEHEST
NATO video, 21MAR2023, NATO-Poland’s MiG-29UB launching from Malbork Air Base in Poland, and flying over the Baltic Sea:
On 16SEP2023, for the first time Republic of Serbia MiG-29s took part in an airshow in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia. Serbian Air Force-Air Defense video:
Post Cold War: NATO’s MiG-21s