Medvedev Praises Russia, Pokes United States

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: “Russia has become stronger and is capable of assuming greater responsibility for solving problems on both a regional and global scale. The world, which got rid of the Cold War, still cannot achieve a new balance. Moreover, a trend towards the use of force (in international relations) has become stronger. This common heritage cannot survive if one of the sides selectively destroys isolated elements of the strategic construction. This does not satisfy us.”

“Deployment of elements of the U.S. global anti-missile system in eastern Europe only makes the situation worse. We will need to react to this adequately. The crisis situation over ... the CFE treaty is also part of the problems with the European security architecture. We would not like to think that only its (the treaty's) final collapse would prove to everyone that the existing control regime is ineffective and unfair.”