Russian Bluster a Dose of Reality

Lots of people woke up with headaches the day after Barack Obama’s historic victory, including the Big O himself. Had Malia upped her negotiation stance to a Great Dane?

It wasn’t that bad, but it was an Excedrin moment nonetheless when those intemperate Russians announced just hours after the polls closed that they’ll deploy Iskander tactical missiles close to the Polish border if the Obama administration proceeds with plans to build a missile defense system in Western Europe.

Talk about raining on the parade!

To an extent, we can cut Russian President Dmitry Medvedev a break here. The poor guy feels put-out because his nation’s 75% stock market tumble in the last 6 weeks has completely extinguished the adrenaline rush he got from his moment in the Georgian sun last summer.

But did he have to go on national TV and say that right then?

Whatever, it presents an early test for the Big O, who during the campaign provided lukewarm support for a US-built European missile defense system designed to protect Western Europe from rogue states like Iran.

Moscow believes the missile defense system threatens its national security, to which the lame duck US president responded that the system would be no match for an all-out Russian nuclear attack so why worry?

Oy vey! January 20th cannot come fast enough.

Meanwhile, Medvedev was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, “I want to stress that these are forced measures. We want positive cooperation…we want to act together against common threats. But they unfortunately, don’t want to listen to us.”

Obama had no comment on the matter. He’s got to deal with Puppygate first.

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