The Russians have told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that they are not keen on imposing new sanctions against Iran in order to thwart its efforts to develop nuclear weapons,reports The New York Times . This should not come as a surprise, since the Russians have shown signs that they were not particularly enthusiastic about the prospect, but American officials seemed to think that the Russians would agree in the end. That now seems even more unlikely.
American officials have been underestimating the Russians thesedays -- or at least not taking into account the level of aggression thatRussians have toward the United States, even with President Obama in office. Americans seem to think that the Russians will come around and start to see things their way on foreign policy issues – but that is misguided. Just as Clinton was arriving in Moscow, Russia's chief of the Strategic Missile Forces announced that “Russia would deploy multiple-warhead missiles in December, the same month a nuclear arms control treaty expires,” reports The Moscow Times. The fact that the Russians had been planning to deploy the missiles was already known -- they are claiming that the missiles would not violate the treaty, although American officials do not agree -- but the announcement was clearly made because Clinton was in town, and as a rebuke to the Americans. Whether or not American officials will heed the warning and choose a new path in dealing with the Russians, however, is not clear.
--Tara McKelvey
