MOSCOW. Nov 6 (Interfax-AVN) - A senior Russian analyst argued on Wednesday that Barack Obama is unlikely to reverse incumbent U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to deploy missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic but is sure to revive talks on a new Russian-American treaty to cut strategic offensive arsenals.
"In theory, anything can happen, but so far the Bush administration has been seeking in every way to push through and consolidate the missile defense system, which is falling apart before our very eyes, [and] now that it has been decided to deploy it, it would be very difficult to scrap it," Sergei Karaganov, head of Russia's Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, told a news conference at the Interfax headquarters in Moscow.
Moscow has branded the plan as a "provocation" and is going to respond with a "counterprovocation" - by stationing Iskander missile systems in Russia's western exclave of Kaliningrad, systems that "can destroy the [planned U.S.] missile positions within several tens of minutes," Karaganov said.
The analyst expressed hope Russia would not initiate new threats.
As for talks on a new accord on the reduction of strategic offensive armaments, those will resume when Obama is president, Karaganov predicted.
"I am sure that they will resume because it has become obvious to everyone that such negotiations are essential both for in political terms and in order to legalize strategic construction on both sides and make it more transparent," he said.