BrianGarst.com

Who are they kidding?

Russia wants the United States and its European allies to provide convincing guarantees that a planned missile defence shield is not aimed against Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Thursday.

…”We are open to serious negotiations (on the missile shield). If the United States and Poland are willing to guarantee that the European anti-missile base is not aimed at Russia, then we are ready to consider concrete proposals,” Lavrov told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily in an interview.

“But we should talk about guarantees, not of cosmetic political gestures,” he said.

Russia strongly opposes U.S. plans to establish an anti-missile shield in NATO members Poland and the Czech Republic, Moscow’s Soviet-era satellites, saying they upset the balance of power by undermining its own nuclear arsenal.

First of all, entirely defensive measures cannot be “aimed” at anyone.  What Russia is really asking for is that, should they decide to start a nuclear war, we let their missiles pass by unmolested.  This is a gross and deliberate perversion of the “balance of power” concept that Russia hopes to exploit to insure that it can continue to bully the caucuses.  Defensive measures do upset the balance of power; they make aggression less likely.