This declaration is the climax of a fragile cooperation between the United States and Russia since the Vladimir Putin later already suspended the CFE Treaty in 2007.

After Moscow proposed to collaborate on the US defence shield with the NATO, the talks are in an impasse since the two parties failed to agree on the architecture of the project. NATO wanted to exclude Russia from the running of the operations, something unacceptable for Moscow. As a consequence, President Medvedev threatened to deploy short-range Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave facing Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea. 

It is not the first time since the end of the Cold War that Russia shows animosity towards the US. Under the Bush Administration, President Putin already threatened US capabilities in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, in times of legislatives elections, Medvedev's declarations sound like a way to rally domestic support on nationalist grounds. Russian Duma elections will take place on December 4th and may explain the radicalization of Moscow. However, this assumption fails to explain the strategic challenges at stake behind the US defence missile issue

Moscow's distrust toward the NATO and the US doesn't solely lay on Medvedev's domestic political agenda. At the geostrategic level, Moscow and Washington face two different agendas. On the one hand, Moscow suspects Obama's administration to hide behind the shield a project that might threaten Russian nuclear facilities.   Besides, Moscow wants to rid Central and Eastern Europe regions from their Atlantic ambitions and the refusal of NATO to involve Moscow in the shield project is perceived as a way to limit Russian influence in the region. On the other hand, Washington declares that the deployment of missiles in Central and Eastern Europe in the framework of the US shield aims only at Iran. Concerned by Medvedev Declaration, Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius reasserted that this defensive program is also meant to counter a possible strike from North Korea. 

Last year, during the G8 summit in Deauville  President Medvedev already warned against the spectre of a new arm race between the US and Russia. Yesterday he recalled that "Nuclear deterrent forces aren't a joke", a stand that may force NATO to reassure Moscow about the shield by allowing Russia to take part in the project.

After his thundering declaration, president Medvedev opened the way for negotiation. "If our partners approach the task of heeding our legitimate security interest in an honest and responsible way, I am sure we will manage to come to terms" he declared. President Medvedev warned that if negation fails, Russia could abandon the START treaty (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) as another answer to the deployment of the US defence shield in Central and Eastern Europe.

The author is CEPI Research Assistant