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By Laura Rozen | The Envoy
During campaign season, it never hurts for a presidential candidate facing a
frustrated public to display toughness and resolve in the face of an old and
familiar adversary. And it also doesn't hurt to throw in some
shock-and-awe--say, a ballistic missile nicknamed "Satan."
This appears to at least partly explain why on Monday Russia announced that it
had successfully tested a short-range interceptor missile; part of its ongoing
effort to develop a domestic missile defense system, according to Russia's RIA
News Agency. (The Russian Defense Ministry has provided a video of the
missile's launch on its website.) Russia also announced it is working on the
development of a 100-ton ballistic missile slated for release in 2015, Pravda
reports. Russia recently held contested parliamentary polls and is due to hold
presidential elections in March. Russia watchers note the political backdrop to
the announced plans and their part in the wider narrative agenda: resurgent
Russia's determined opposition to American missile defense plans in Eastern
Europe.
"In connection with the plans of the United States to develop the air defense
system in Europe, in close vicinity to Russia's borders, and because of the
unwillingness of the U.S. side to provide any guarantees, the Russian
Federation continues to take measures to preserve parity in the field," Pravda
reports.
"Russia does not stand against the U.S. missile defense system," Sergei
Karakaev, the Russian Defense Ministry commander of the missile troops, was
cited by the paper. "Russia stands against the creation of the missile defense
system, which would be directly aimed against Russia to potentially reduce the
possibilities of the Russian nuclear containment forces."
The field tests come a month after Russia's outgoing president Dmitry Medvedev
declared that he was walking away in protest from U.S.-Russian missile defense
negotiations. "The United States is unwilling to provide a written guarantee
that the system would not be used against Russian nuclear forces," the Union of
Concerned Scientists' Elliot Negin wrote at the Huffington Post Monday. "
[Medvedev] warned that, if the United States carries out its plans to build it
without such an assurance, Russia would site missiles in its westernmost
Kaliningrad region and consider walking away from the New START agreement."
(The strategic arms reduction treaty, signed last year, calls for the United
States and Russia to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear arms by a third over
the next seven years.)
Medvedev's throwing down the gauntlet on missile defense talks with the West
also played to a delicate moment in Russian domestic politics, analysts say.
Medvedev has served since 2008 as the Kremlin-approved placeholder for Russian
president Vladimir Putin after the latter served two terms as president and
moved over to serve a term as prime minister. However, Putin, a former KGB
colonel, announced in September his plans to run for president again in March.
But things haven't gone as smoothly as Putin planned. Putin's United Russia
party barely claimed a majority in contested Russian parliamentary polls held
Dec. 5 that many Russians and international observers believed were rigged.
Protests ensued, with another major demonstration scheduled for Dec. 24.
"Putin typically has consolidated his power by pursuing campaigns against
nefarious foes -- Chechen extremists, Russian oligarchs, and now the West,"
Anya Schmemann, a Russia watcher at the Council on Foreign Relations, told
Yahoo News Tuesday. "This is a time-tested tactic in Russia. The Russian
government's threat in November to target missile defense sites fits into this
category--blustery talk for a domestic audience. However, the Russian public
has become more savvy in recent years and Putin's effort to blame the United
States and Clinton for supporting the protests and criticizing the elections
was mocked in the streets."
"Russia's military establishment is concerned about losing parity with the
United States on the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads that it
maintains," the Ploughshare Fund's Joel Rubin told Yahoo News Tuesday. "By
developing a new heavy missile, a perverse outcome is taking place, where
Russia is attempting to not fall further beneath New START levels in order to
satisfy the concerns of its military establishment."
Of course, tough-guy posturing on the well-worn grooves of the Cold War axis is
not unique to Moscow. On Saturday, President Obama's nominated envoy to Moscow,
Michael McFaul, was finally confirmed after Republican Senator Mark Kirk of
Illinois lifted a weeks-long hold on the nominee.
"Kirk lifted his objections after the White House wrote him a letter assuring
him that it will 'not provide Russia with sensitive information about our
missile defense systems that would in any way compromise our national
security,'" Agence-France Press reported. "Specifically the White House told
Kirk that 'under no circumstances' would the United States provide hit-to-kill
technology and interceptor telemetry to Russia."