Evolving Russian Perspectives on Missile Defense: The Emerging Accommodation

This report illustrates the evolution of the Putin government's approach to strategic policy, including START II and the ABM Treaty. This includes Russia's attempts to advance "non-strategic alternatives" to BMD and Russian pronouncements regarding its likely "asymmetric" counters to U.S. BMD. Despite an initial reluctance to embrace the Bush administration's new approach to the bilateral strategic relationship, Vladimir Putin seems to symbolize a new pragmatism in Russian policy. Putin's plan was to exact maximal advantages for Russia while engaging the U.S. on arms control. For instance, while he invested considerable political capital in "saving" the ABM Treaty, he responded positively to the Bush Administration's proposal for a new paradigm of U.S.-Russia bilateral relations. By agreeing to significantly less structured arms control, the Kremlin has both accepted the inevitable and untied its own hands in pursuing the modernization of its nuclear and conventional forces.