While U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates claims Russian Prime Minister Putin had told him Iran was Russia’s greater threat, in a meeting with American security experts, Evgeny Zudin of the Russian Ministry of Defense gave detailed presentations on the Russian assessment of the Iranian and North Korean missile programs, and the degree to which Russia believes these programs constitute threats requiring missile defense responses. Evgeny Zudin said that for Russia, the bottom line is that, in essence, neither program constitutes a threat at the moment or in the near future.
by Ted Lipien
Opinia.US Truckee, CA, November 29, 2010 — Leaked secret State Department cables may help to resolve the mystery as to why President Obama chose September 17, 2009 to make his announcement on canceling President Bush’s missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The announcement pleased the Kremlin, which had been pushing for the cancellation of the planned system for years. But why the Obama White House made the announcement on September 17, the anniversary of the Soviet military invasion of Poland in 1939 under the secret terms of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, is still not clear.
Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia
Announcement about sending Russian killers to the U.S. is a sign of the Kremlin’s contempt for Obama
Update: President Obama has so much invested in the “reset” of relations with Russia (read: Medvedev and Putin) that he can’t bring himself to condemn this public rebuke from the Kremlin and a flagrant challenge to him, U.S. laws and sovereignty.
Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia
Reposting from Sept. 16, 2009: September 17 could be a new date in US-Polish relations
On the 71 anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, we are republishing our Sept. 16, 2009 blog post, in which we asked the Obama Administration to consider the significance of the 1939 division of Poland by Hitler and Stalin before making the White House announcement on the cancelation of the ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Poland: “September 17 could be a new date in US-Polish relations”
Obama’s Public Diplomacy Katabasis in Poland President Obama may very well kiss the Polish American vote good bye after committing yet another public diplomacy blunder which gave Vice President Biden, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein and some Congressional Democrats plenty of reasons to be pulling their hair out in utter frustration over his insensitive behavior toward an important…
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Bloggers and Russian experts in the US have been trying to find out whether the Obama White House coordinated with the Kremlin the timing of the missile shield decision that deeply offended people in Poland and produced biting commentaries in the US. Speculations abound that Russian diplomats, working on instructions from propaganda experts within the Kremlin,…
Digital Journal, Featured, History, Poland, Russia
Was White House duped by Kremlin on timing of missile decision? | Digital Journal Op-Ed
By Ted Lipien Published October 2, 2009 by Digital Journal Speculations grow that Russian diplomats, working on instructions from propaganda experts, tricked White House and State Department officials to get President Obama to make his missile shield announcement on September 17, a bad day for Poland. Opinia.US, a bilingual Polish-English news website providing analysis of US-Polish relations, reports that bloggers…
Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia
Walesa on Obama’s Missile Diplomacy – American Diplomacy Failed Obama in Poland Update
“It wasn’t that the shield was that important, but it’s about the way, the way of treating us.” –Lech Wałęsa, the former Polish president and Solidarity leader, regarding the US decision to drop the missile defense shield in Poland; John Brown’s Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Version 2.0 Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam…
Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam Wired While American and international media blames President Obama for choosing to announce his decision on the removal of the missile defense system from Poland and Czech Republic on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland on September 17, 1939, surprisingly so far no one has called it…
The following is my op-ed for Digital Journal. Republishing is allowed. September 17, A Wrong Date for Obama White House to Snub Poland President Obama’s announcement on September 17 that the US is shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Central Europe is likely to raise painful historical memories in Poland. By…