Legal Journals

Medvedev Redeploys Missiles to NATO Borders Hours After Obama?s Election

By mhelene

In a menacing speech broadcast live across Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev announced that he had ordered Russian missiles redeployed to the border of Poland last week.  Medvedev’s remarks provoked concerns that Russia is reemerging as a threat to the U.S. and Europe.

Speaking within hours of Barack Obama’s election, Medvedev did not mention or congratulate the president-elect once, but his remarks were primarily aimed at the U.S.  Medvedev claimed the missiles had been positioned in response to American plans to build an antiballistic missile defense system in Europe and lashed out at the “construction of a global missile defense system, the encirclement of Russia by military blocs, unrestrained NATO enlargement and other gifts.”

Medvedev went on to blame the U.S. for the global financial crisis, proclaim the end of American dominance in the world, and criticize the “mistaken, egotistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community.”

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Full post as published by Harvard International Law Journal Digest on November 12, 2008 (boomark / email).