Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 19
January 29, 2009 11:57 AM Age: 3 days
Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Russia, Military/Security, Home Page, Featured
By: Pavel Felgenhauer
On January 28 Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed official in the Russian Defense Ministry that plans to deploy Iskander SS-26 missiles in the Kaliningrad region, which borders NATO member nations Poland and Lithuania, have been halted. Last November President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to station the SS-26s in Kaliningrad in response to U.S. plans to deploy missile defense (MD) interceptors in Poland and MD radar in the Czech Republic. The row over the MD shield in Europe has helped drag down relations between Moscow and Washington to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War, but Russian officials have recently been sending signals that a positive shift in relations is possible with the new Barak Obama administration in the United States. Obama spoke to Medvedev by telephone on January 26, and the two are reported to have agreed to stop the "drift" in their bilateral relations. According to Interfax, "the implementation of plans to deploy the SS-26 in Kaliningrad has been halted in connection with the fact that the new U.S. administration is not rushing through plans to deploy [a missile defense system] in Poland and the Czech Republic" (Interfax, January 28).
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On January 28 Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed official in the Russian Defense Ministry that plans to deploy Iskander SS-26 missiles in the Kaliningrad region, which borders NATO member nations Poland and Lithuania, have been halted. Last November President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to station the SS-26s in Kaliningrad in response to U.S. plans to deploy missile defense (MD) interceptors in Poland and MD radar in the Czech Republic. The row over the MD shield in Europe has helped drag down relations between Moscow and Washington to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War, but Russian officials have recently been sending signals that a positive shift in relations is possible with the new Barak Obama administration in the United States. Obama spoke to Medvedev by telephone on January 26, and the two are reported to have agreed to stop the "drift" in their bilateral relations. According to Interfax, "the implementation of plans to deploy the SS-26 in Kaliningrad has been halted in connection with the fact that the new U.S. administration is not rushing through plans to deploy [a missile defense system] in Poland and the Czech Republic" (Interfax, January 28).
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