RUSSIAN THOUGHTS ON STRATEGY

Here’s an interesting insight about Russia and the recent antiballistic "missile crisis” by Karel Schwarzenberg, the Czech ex-Foreign Minister, from a May 22, 2009 article called Russia still thinks that it can tell us what we can and can’t do.

Schwarzenberg thinks that, from the military perspective, the Russians really don’t care about the radar that was to have been installed in the Czech Republic (until Obama put it on ice, thinking that the concession would help “reset” U.S.-Russian relations). According to Schwarzenberg, the Russians know perfectly well that the radar in the Czech Republic and the antiballistic missiles in Poland are not aimed at them. Russia is primarily interested in staking out its territory. The former Warsaw pact countries are, in Moscow’s eyes, still imperial territories where the Russians can exert their veto. “A dachshund never changes its opinion about a sausage,” Schwarzenberg quipped.