Russian Threat in The Corner Pocket

Over at the Corner KJL points up a news item I have seen elsewhere today. It involves what some are characterizing what is going to be future President Barak Hussein Obama's first foreign policy challenge. However, it is no such thing.

Here is a snippet from the story KJL exerpts:

MOSCOW — In a wide-ranging attack on the United States as it elected a new president, the Russian leader Dmitri A. Medvedev warned on Wednesday that Moscow might deploy short-range missiles in the Baltic region to counter a perceived threat from a proposed American missile defense shield [emphasis added] in Eastern Europe.

Source: Russia Flexes Its Muscles — That Didn't Take Long by Kathryn Jean Lopez on The Corner Quite simply, there is no threat here. My recollection is President-Elect Obama has promised to put an end to SDI so Russia's talking tough is cheap – they are going to get what they want in this matter. Now, why do they do this?

To put up a threat and when President-Elect Barak Hussein Obama follows through with this promise Russia can claim a foreign policy victory – Russia can claim they backed down the US and its new president.

This is not the sort of thing Gaffeomatic Biden referred to. I suspect the sort of testing Gaffeomatic Biden refers to is going to occur in the Middle East most likely in the Persian Gulf region.

Update:
Discussions at The Belmont Club do not support any sort of concrete position taken regarding SDI by President-Elect Obama, still I believe he will shelve the project and attribute the withdrawal to his nuanced position. Russia still gets its victory and Obama gets credit for a miracle.