Despite the MSM celebrations of an historical “resetting” of relations between US and Russia, Obama’s visit to Moscow was not a success. The main issue was, of course, missile defense, and on this Putin/Medvedev didn’t budge.
Furthermore, the negotiation of a new arms control treaty to replace the 1991 Start I pact which expires in December that could see the two countries reducing their nuclear warheads by up to a third has been hailed as a “breakthrough”, but it is mostly fluff: 1st, it has not been ratified by Congress and therefore it is no binding and 2nd, the announced “cut” would have been achieved anyway by the Moscow Treaty of 2002 by 2012.
A concession on Afghanistan though: Russia agrees to allow the US military to fly troops and weapons across its territory to Afghanistan, allowing it to avoid using supply routes through Pakistan that are attacked by militants. No big favor, this: Russia is more than happy to leave the problem of Islamic fundamentalism at his southern border to others.
What is extremely worrying is the possibility of Obama running Poland and other allies under the bus (dropping the missile shield programme) in his hopeless quest for help from Russia against a nuclear Iran.
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