Russia as an anti-American "world power"

A New York Post columnist and former Bush foreign policy adviser warns that the current Kremlin leadership is trying to extend Russia's sphere of influence beyond Asia, the Caucuses, and Europe.

Russian warships were recently deployed to Venezuela to coincide with President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Caracas -- the first ever by a Russian president. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Russia's deployment of the naval squadron was "not a provocation," but rather "an exchange between two free countries."

Peter Brookes, a senior fellow for national security affairs at The Heritage Foundation, says Russia is signaling it has interests in Latin America. "I think it's to strategically distract the United States. I think it's a bit of payback for American warships which went into the Black Sea -- which Russia considers a Russian lake -- during the Georgian crisis a few months ago," he contends. "So I think that there's a lot of symbolism here in terms of this ship visit. I think it also says that Russia sees itself as a world power; it's not just a regional power."

A day after the U.S. presidential election, in his first major address since taking office, Russian President Medvedev delivered an extremely anti-American speech. Brookes believes that speech was a signal to the U.S. and the incoming Obama administration. However, he notes that the Russians have backed down a bit from their "harsh rhetoric" after an Obama foreign policy adviser said the president-elect had not committed to deploying a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.

Russian missiles: provocative

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has sharply criticised Russian plans to deploy short-range missiles on its western border.
The missiles will be based in the Kaliningrad enclave between Poland and Lithuania, but the Kremlin says it is willing to cancel the project if the US scraps its plans for a missile shield in central Europe.
Mr Gates says Russia's actions are provocative and misguided, adding that it is hardly the welcome a new US administration deserves.
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced his plans the day after US President-elect Barack Obama won the election.

Lavrov vs the US

Russia's foreign minister has said it will abandon plans to station missiles in Kaliningrad if the US does not base part of a missile shield in Europe.
Sergei Lavrov said short-range Iskander missiles would only be deployed in the western enclave, which borders Poland, to neutralise any perceived US threat.
President Dmitri Medvedev unveiled the planned counter-measure a week ago.
The US insists the planned shield is designed solely to guard against attack by "rogue states", such as Iran.
At present, the system will include a tracking radar in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in northern Poland. Moscow says they could threaten its own defences.
These would be in addition to radars and interceptors in Alaska and California in the US, and another radar at Fylingdales in the UK.
'Third zone'
At a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, Mr Lavrov was asked whether the Russian plans to deploy Iskander missile systems in Kaliningrad might affect Friday's EU-Russia summit and renewed talks on a new partnership and co-operation agreement.

The US plans a global missile shield to protect against "rogue states"
"I don't see any connection between what was announced in the message of our president to the Federal Assembly and relations between Russia and the European Union," he said.
"We said… that if the third zone of positioning of the US anti-missile shield is created, one of the measures to neutralise the threats to Russia's security that would inevitably arise will be the deployment of Iskander missile systems in the Kaliningrad region."
The Iskander systems would therefore be deployed "only if the third zone of positioning really takes shape", Mr Lavrov added.
EU leaders warned Russia on Friday that the decision to base missiles in Kaliningrad would not contribute to creating a climate of confidence or to the improvement of security.
On Saturday, a senior aide to US President-elect Barack Obama said he had "made no commitment" to go ahead with plans to base the interceptors in Poland, despite an earlier statement by the Polish president saying that he had made such a promise.