Moscow Gets Obama To Blink On Euro Missile Defense
Russia drops plans to deploy missiles next to Poland after Barack Obama takes office
Russia has sent a conciliatory signal to President Barack Obama by dropping plans to deploy short-range missiles alongside Poland and Lithuania.
The Kremlin had threatened to retaliate for America’s policy of installing a missile defence shield by placing these weapons in Kaliningrad, Russia’s Baltic enclave sandwiched between two Nato members.
The US defence system will consist of a radar station in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland. America says the only aim is to guard against a possible future threat from a nuclear-armed Iran. Washington points out that 10 interceptor missiles pose no conceivable challenge to Russia’s arsenal of 5,000 operational nuclear warheads, with another 8,000 in reserve.
But Moscow has vociferously objected to the proposed defence shield. Mr Obama’s new administration has pledged to rethink this policy. Russia appears to be trying to encourage this process by drawing back from confrontation.
“The realisation of these plans has been halted in connection with the fact that the new US administration is not rushing through its plans,” said a Russian official, according to the Interfax news agency.
A spokesman for Kurt Volker, the US ambassador to Nato, said that Russia’s move, “if true”, would be a “very positive step”.
Last August, Poland signed an agreement with America to host the interceptor missiles forming the key part of America’s proposed shield. But no timetable was laid down for the deployment of the system and its future remains an open question.
Radek Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, told The Daily Telegraph that Mr Obama was taking a “fresh look” at the missile defence policy he inherited from George W Bush.
Mr Sikorski said the new administration was having an “internal debate”, adding: “If I were to make a prediction, it’s a question of timing, of pace and of resources available and confidence in the technology.”
After several years of mounting hostility, Russia is reappraising its policy towards America in the light of Mr Obama’s arrival. A senior diplomat in Moscow said he hoped there “would be a new possibility to restart our relations after a period of extensive turbulence last year”.
Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, said last week: “We believe that Washington’s policy on the international arena will contain changes for the better.”
Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, has arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos where he was due to speak on the global financial crisis. Mr Putin, both as premier and formerly as president, has led Russia’s anti-American rhetoric and policy.
But in a rare interview with Bloomberg Television, Mr Putin said he was “cautiously optimistic” about US-Russia relations under Mr Obama.
President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia is expected to have his first formal meeting with Mr Obama on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in London in April. One possible formula for easing the tension might be for America to defer its missile defence system in return for Russian co-operation in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Russia ‘drops missile plans due to Obama change to US attitude’
Russia has dropped plans to install missiles near Poland after the Obama administration signalled a change in US attitude to the region, a Moscow military official has reportedly said.
By Jon Swaine
The official suggested that Mr Obama’s White House had made clear it would not prioritise executing the Bush administration’s plan to install a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
An unnamed official in the Russian military’s general staff said: “The implementation of these plans has been halted in connection with the fact that the new US administration is not rushing through plans to deploy” elements of its missile defence shield in eastern Europe, according to the Interfax news agency.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, had warned that the US shield - which the Bush White House said was necessary to defend against potential attacks from the Middle East - would be interpreted by Moscow as a direct provocation.
Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President, announced in November that in response, Moscow would place short-range Iskander missiles in the western enclave of Kaliningrad.
Washington had previously obtained agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic for the installation of the shield, which it said would plug a gap in its global missile defence system.
It said the shield was necessary to guard against long-range missiles that Iran was working to develop. The proposed system had received Nato-wide backing.
Plans for the system were accelerated after the conflict between Russia and Georgia last year.
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f@#k
Correct “Hang onto your butts!” If the megazero bites on this one you’ll more than likely be seeing more Russians in your near future.
“Mr Obama’s new administration has pledged to rethink this policy.”
President Bush, you did so much, but clearly you did not do enough.
What a farce, the Russians can simply drive them in or drive them out, as these are mobile systems.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/ss-26-pics.htm
Rookie has been outmanourvered invery short order.
Will I be able to even have the pleasure of telling all of the zeroes who voted for this turd “I told you so”? Will I have to learn Russian to say it?
Putin is not a man you make deals with. He could do us all a favor and invite our Presidential turd to dinner. He could add the same special ingredient that fucked up the President of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenk.
Thank you, Hussein! We are now known as the United States of Buns U and Squealing! Thank you, sir, may I have another! Domestic policies by Stalin and foreign policies by Chamberlain! We get the best of both worlds.
I might have to rant a little on this when I get home from work, but if I were to sum it up in a short paragraph it would go something like this.
I never worried about defense when W. was in the White House. I never worried about the front line. I wouldn’t say he kept me safe, because danger is everywhere, but I knew that the frontline would hold. I knew that I didn’t have to fuckin’ worry about an ICBM being dropped on my head. I knew that if Terrorists were to get through the front line, they would have a hell of a time getting to their target. You can only be so secure, and he did it the right way. Draw a line in the sand. Now that we have Hussein as Commander Fuck Up, I’m jumpy, everytime I hear a siren. W. was the man, our soldiers are the men/women, that stood on the front line and gave me the freedom to live day to day like it was 9/10/01.
That’s about as concise as I can make it.
Honestly I fthe russians wanted to invade poland and the former soviet states, They could. The new administration would let them and there would not be a damn thing anyone could so.
IMO The current admin. would not do jack squat. they would just condem the action and that it. How far we have fallen
in just a few weeks.
[...] Pat Dollard, Telegraph, “Russia drops plans to deploy missiles next to Poland after Barack Obama takes office” [...]