Minister: Russia won't deploy missiles near Poland

Source: Associated Press

– Russia will scrap a plan to deploy missiles near Poland because the U.S. no longer wants to place a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe, a Russian deputy defense minister said Saturday.

Vladimir Popovkin told Ekho Moskvy radio that Obama's move has made the deployment of Iskander short-range missiles in the Kaliningrad region unnecessary.

"Reason has prevailed over ambitions," Popovkin said. "Naturally, we will cancel countermeasures which Russia has planned in response."

Popovkin's statement was the most explicit declaration yet of Russia's intention to scrap the plan after President Barack Obama's decision, announced Thursday, to halt Eastern European missile defense.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090919/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_missile_defense

Good move on the US side.

Good counter move on Russia's side.

I am confident Obama has us back on the road to forming a lasting friendship with Russia.

It's a great one-two reminder of why it's fortunate that Obama is president and not mcbush

Still in Re-Hab for trust issues in regards to Government ,hope it doesn't take 8yrs to get rid of.

Source: Associated Press

MOSCOW – Russia said Saturday it will scrap a plan to deploy missiles near Poland since Washington has dumped a planned missile shield in Eastern Europe. It also harshly criticized Iran's president for new comments denying the Holocaust.

Neither move, however, represented ceding any significant ground. A plan to place Iskander missiles close to the Polish border was merely a threat. And while the Kremlin has previously criticized Tehran for questioning the reality of the Holocaust, Russian leaders have refused to back Western push for tougher sanctions against Iran.

It still remains unclear whether Moscow will make any significant concessions on Iran and other issues in response to President Barack Obama's move to scrap the Bush-era plan for U.S. missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin told Ekho Moskvy radio Saturday that Obama's move has made the deployment of Iskander short-range missiles in the Kaliningrad region unnecessary.

He described Obama's move as "victory of reason over ambitions."

"Naturally, we will cancel countermeasures which Russia has planned in response, one of which was the deployment of Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region," Popovkin said.

Popovkin's statement was the most explicit declaration yet of Russia's intention to scrap the plan after Obama's decision, which was announced Thursday.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090919/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_missile_defense

so there won't be a Cold War 2: Electric Boogaloo after all :shrug:

Will wonders never cease. WE keep doing this, with some realistic diplomacy, maybe peace will break out somewhere and spread. Ya think?

and could only be driven off with shows of strength like napalming Salvadoran villagers or backing mujahedeen
remember, America's only aggressive when it hallucinates that everyone around it is :eyes:
because they're barbarians who'd only bite off our hands if we reached out to them, like the ungrateful Chinese and Koreans who didn't respect Japan's right to self-defense in its colonies, and who wouldn't even take some acceptable losses in the name of science, like being dosed with bubonic plague or having their arms cut off and reattached backwards

There goes the strong arm-man of Russia.....Mr. Putin would have you believe that he is simply the PM whist he's control freak; and all communications coming out of Mr. Meldev's ears!

Indeed, the west would welcome when, and when Mr. Putin is out off his sleep/hibernation.

I don't think trusting Putin or his puppet president is very wise. Some of the things they have done are inexcusable. The only thing that makes it worse is our complicity in it and the fact that the media covered it so poorly.

The idea of promising such a shield as some sort of deterrent to Russia just did not strike me an effective deterrent. Yes, we could also simply station more missles near the Russian border, but we werem't crazy about that when Russia tried to do that in Cuba. Now, if we actually had a cost effective missle shield system, then it may be worth provoking Russia, but I have yet to read anything suggesting that we have the capability to stop a Russian ICBM attack. Also, it always comes back to energy. Russia is a player again due to oil reserves, while the U.S. has did absolutely nothing to become less dependent on energy during the Bush years. If we do not get serious about energy independence, then future conflict is unavoidable.

Some say that it's a good short-term move, because short- and medium-range missiles are more of a threat and, in any event, the long-range missile defense wouldn't be necessary for years anyway. Of course, the justification for scrapping it was that there's no imminent threat (that's not predicted to occur until 2012-2014), but since there's no imminent system and no imminent construction it's not like anybody was arguing there was much 'imminent' (except deployment of short-range missiles to Kaliningrad).

Of course, what Popovkin gave another official took away, saying there was no determination as to whether they'd not they'd redeploy missiles the unyet deployed missiles away from Poland's borders.

U.S. +1 step.

Russia +1 step.

Isn't that the more interesting concept at work here?

I mean, "yay peace!", but we know how long that'll last--give it a couple weeks and some new life-threatening menace will take this place of this charade.

Both camps are quite openly admitting that the Cover Story invented to sooth and distract the masses was absolute crap, and so on.. I know we're all full of shit, but rarely is it so openly and casually admitted.

Remember, the missiles in Poland and Czech were to defend from Iran, not Russia. Right? Really? No, it's bullshit? Wow, shocking.