Die Welt. Berlin. Deutschland.
Medwedjew, dem aus unerfindlichen Gründen zeitweilig der Ruf eines Liberalen anhing, hat sich mit seiner gestrigen Rede endgültig als der Hardliner präsentiert, wie er in der russischen Führungsriege gebraucht wird. Er kündigte unter anderem an, Russland werde in der Region Kaliningrad an der Grenze zur Nato neue Raketen vom Typ „Iskander" aufstellen.
Er sprach auch über tief greifende innenpolitische Veränderungen, z.B. über die Verlängerung der Amtszeit des Präsidenten. Sollte bei der Wahl 2012, wie allgemein erwartet, erneut Wladimir Putin antreten und gewinnen, stünden Russland und der Welt weiter zwölf Putin-Jahre bevor.
The Guardian. London. Great Britian.
Medvedev's threat - with its echoes of cold war-style confrontation along the frontiers of eastern Europe - is likely to be an early foreign policy headache for Obama, as his fledgling administration seeks to improve ties with the EU. The Democrats are ambivalent about the Bush administration's expensive defence plans in Europe. But if Obama dumps the project he risks accusations of weakness and caving in to Russian bullying.
The Financial Times. London. Great Britian.
Dmitry Medvedev welcomed his future US counterpart not with congratulations but threats. He warned in his first state of the nation address that Russia would site new ballistic missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad - embedded within the European Union - if the US deploys its planned missile defence shield in central Europe. Even welcome pledges on democratic reforms did not prevent his speech erasing a chunk of yesterday's earlier big gains on Moscow's equity markets, which have bounced 50 per cent since October 24. Mr Medvedev should heed the market reaction, for there is growing reason to believe Russia's foreign policy bravado will be undermined by its weakening economic outlook.
Les Echos. Paris. La France.
Quelques heures seulement après l'annonce des résultats des élections américaines, la Russie a lancé par la bouche de son président, Dimitri Medvedev, un nouveau défi à l'Amérique : celui de déployer des missiles dans l'enclave de Kaliningrad, près de la frontière polonaise. Cette menace qui vise à répondre à l'ex- tension par les Etats-Unis d'un bouclier antimissiles en Pologne et en République tchèque, rappelle les temps de la guerre froide et la crise des missiles soviétiques à Cuba de 1962 qui fut l'une des plus difficiles à gérer pour le président démocrate John F. Kennedy.
The Washington Post. Washington. USA.
The point of deploying new missiles in the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, as Mr. Medvedev pledged to do yesterday, is to bluff the new U.S. administration or its NATO allies into abandoning a plan to deploy a rudimentary missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. As Mr. Putin well knows, the defense system is aimed at Iran and would be powerless to stop Russian ICBMs. But the Russians also know that missile defense is regarded skeptically by many Democrats, because of questions about its cost and effectiveness. Moscow's crude logic is that Mr. Obama can be pressured into "a choice" to abandon the system -- thereby proving Russia's position to be equal to that of a weakening America. We expect that Mr. Obama will be smart enough not to fall for this. He's already made it clear that he intends to stand against Russia's aggression in Europe. We share some of the doubts about the missile deployment -- but if it is slowed or canceled, it should be done without reference to Moscow. Unlike some of the probes that will be aimed at Mr. Obama in the coming months, Russia's latest crude threat can be neutralized simply by denying it the attention that Mr. Putin craves.