Russia Threatens With New Cold War Over NATO Anti-Missile Shield Deployed in Romania

Dmitry Medvedev (rt.com)

President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, took a very angry stance on the anti-missile shield deployed in Romania by the U.S. military, during his first full news conference since he took office three years ago, held near Moscow, at Skolkovo Center, which the Russian leadership intends to turn into a Russian Sillicon Valley.

Medvedev said that the decision to place this shield in Romania, very close to the frontier with Russia, would determine the Russian Federation to foster its program of creating offensive weapons.

He called the move of the Americans a very uninspired plan, and threatened that it could plunge the two countries into another cold war.

The president put very much stress on this matter, saying that Russia could even pull out of the Start 3 Agreement on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, voted by both parties, the United States and Russia, in 2010.

Some analysts consider these allegations no more than a move intended to raise the stakes in the event of future negotiations between Russia and the United States.

The reaction seems exaggerated, since during the NATO summit in Lisbon last year, Russia manifested its intentions to participate in the defense of Europe.

In the wake of killing Osama bin Laden, American authorities signed an agreement with the Romanian counterparts by which the Americans would deploy on the Romanian military base of Deveselu some anti-missile rocket batteries with no payload, intended to hit the possible missiles headed to Europe and cause their detonation in the air on impact.

Romanian people found out about this arrangement in the paper, as usual, and the American army made the decision without the prior consultation with Russia.

Czech Republic and Poland refused to participate in such project because they thought it was ineffective, and would upset the Russians.

During the same conference, Medvedev also spoke of the way NATO handled the Libyan crisis. By that, he meant to say that Russia would not back any intervention plan in Syria, if needed.

Speaking about his relation with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, he said he had known him for 20 years, and that they were “like-minded.”

Putin and Medvedev (karadeniz-press.ro)

He added that a response would be offered on whether he would run for a new term in office.

Analysts think, however, that a rift exists between them, and that his rhetoric about the anti-missile shield is no more than an affirmation of his intention to run for a new office, by delivering the Russian constituents a strong message, with much appeal to them.

According to Russian Constitution, Putin is eligible for a new term as the president of Russia, after sitting one out.