How will President Dmitri Medvedevs recent address to parliament influence the new US Administrations policies?
— Purely from the standpoint of protocol, I got an odd impression from Medvedev’s speech. That’s because when a new administration comes in there is usually a honeymoon period, or at least some period when the leaders take each other’s measure. Even in the Soviet era, the Foreign Ministry would never have made such a statement. They either kept silent or made a few formal gestures, offered congratulations, and so on. But Medvedev concentrated especially on an asymmetric response to the deployment of American missile defense elements in Europe. On the one hand, of course, he wanted to issue a reminder that this topic continues to disappoint Moscow; on the other hand, this was a typical underestimation of the fact that decision-making in the USA is far less dependent on individuals than it is in Russia. A new leader in Russia can sometimes refashion the situation to suit himself to such an extent that although the country formally remains the same, it actually becomes an entirely differ
