Medvedev warns against U.S.-Poland base
MOSCOW – Sharply criticizing the United States while offering to rebuild relations with its new leader, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned in a nationally televised address Wednesday that he would deploy short-range missiles near Poland if the Obama administration pressed ahead with plans to build a missile defense shield in Europe.
Kremlin officials have threatened before to target Poland by moving tactical missiles into the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, most recently after Poland agreed in August to host a U.S. interceptor base. But Medvedev’s threat “to neutralize, when necessary” the American installation was the most explicit and public endorsement of the plan by a top Russian leader yet.
The warning appeared intended to signal the Kremlin’s priorities to the new American president-elect and could serve as an early foreign policy test for Obama, who has said he supports missile defenses against Iran and North Korea but has also criticized the Bush administration for failing to consult with allies about the shield, exaggerating its capabilities and rushing deployment for political purposes.
Medvedev’s remarks came in his first state of the nation address since taking office in May, a wide-ranging speech in which he held out little hope for democratic reforms and also proposed amending the Russian constitution to lengthen the presidential term to six years – a move condemned by critics as part of a plan to allow his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, to return to office.
Medvedev emphasized that Russia remained ready to work with the United States, if it abandoned its “mistaken, egotistical and sometimes simply dangerous” policies.
“It is true that these relations are not going through the easiest period today,” he said. “But I would like to stress that we have no problems with the American people. We have no inherent anti-Americanism.”
Russia’s finance minister suggested Obama’s election would give a boost to the global economy, and the Russian ambassador to NATO said he expected Obama to improve the alliance’s relationship with Moscow and lift the limits on cooperation imposed after Russia’s war with Georgia.
“I think the emergence of the new U.S. president, the young, energetic black leader, can lead to those bans imposed by the previous U.S. administration between Russia and NATO being lifted,” said Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin.
Ilya Utekhin, an anthropologist at the European University in St. Petersburg, said Obama’s election has given the United States “a historic chance for large-scale re-branding of the image of the United States.”
“An African-American president appears to have more sensitivity to the cross-cultural diversity of the world, and this is a promise of a more creative and flexible foreign policy,” he said. “Moreover, this choice will certainly be understood as indicative of the progress of the American society and democracy.”
Viktor Yerofeyev, a prominent Russian novelist, said he believed Obama’s election marked the start of a new era for the world.
“The choice of an African-American president in the United States overturns the whole idea of the stiff and conservative America,” he said. “This means that America did wake up. This means that America is again open for free and democratic values. … America has once again become a good model to emulate. It has again become a great country.”