On January 22, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is not prepared to work in collaboration with the U.S. on building a new missile shield. The Minister said that both the U.S. and NATO have been informed that the missile defense strategy should be reconsidered from the very beginning, starting with a joint analysis of the actual threats facing the Western world.  

Russia is not willing to rely on the analysis of missile danger and nuclear proliferation done by other countries. The way Russian officials view the issue today is that the U.S. has simply asked Russia to contribute its missile defense radars to implement a plan, which Russian experts have not assessed. According to Minister Lavrov, this is not the kind of cooperation that Russia is ready to stand behind.

During a recent discussion, however, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev decided to perform a joint review of the nuclear threat in the region. Documents that were approved at the session of the Russia-NATO Council that took place in December contained stipulations addressing joint evaluations of the risk as well. 

Sergei Lavrov indeed confirmed that Russia is ready to share its facilities, if the analysis shows that such measures would be necessary. For the analysis to be satisfactory, all nuclear proliferation scenarios need to be taken into account, not only the Iranian problem.