Russians Threaten US over Missile Shield

Apparently the Kennebunkport summit between Bush and Putin didn't go so well.

Now the Russians are threatening to counter the US shield by siting cruise missiles in Kaliningrad (a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania), if the US puts a missile defense shield in Europe.

Kalingrad is essentially one large Russian military base, and already hosts shorter range Tochka missiles. The longer range Iskander types would be a direct military threat to Czechoslovakia,Austria Poland and Germany.

The televised speech by Sergei Ivanov, Russia's First Deputy Minister and a possible successor to Putin came just two days after Putin proposed using a base being built in southern Russia in place of a planned US radar station in the Czech Republic.

“If our proposal is accepted, then the need will disappear for us to place ... new weapons, including missiles, in the European part of the country, including Kaliningrad, to counter those threats that ... will appear if the decision is taken to place the missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic,” Ivanov said.

Lovely.

I wouldn't worry overmuch about the Russian threat, although it is, to use the diplomatese, `unhelpful. With a sharply declining birthrate, except among Muslims, next door to expanionist Iran,inferior technology and with an economy sharply dependent on energy sales to the EU, the Russians need the West, and especially the US much more than we need them. Their current hubris is entirely do to them having a few dollars to play with because of oil prices.

This is merely another golden oldie from the Soviet songbook.