by Cheryl Rofer
The news hasn't reached the US MSM yet, but a number of European news outlets are reporting that Russia is putting a hold on deploying Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad. The Russian news service Interfax is the source of many of these reports. According to the International Herald Tribune, the Russian defense ministry dismissed the reports.
The move is apparently in response to President Barack Obama's stated willingness to take another look at the antimissile and radar deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Another report that has surfaced but hasn't gotten much play is that the Russian and American presidents talked by telephone a few days back.
Add in the conversations about Russian cooperation with NATO in Central Asia and elsewhere, and things are definitely looking up for Russian-American relations.
Richard Norwich in The Guardian. (Caution: he repeats the nonsense about Iran having enough uranium for a nuclear bomb in another year.)
Response from NATO (via Reuters)
RIA Novosti livens things up with a report of new Iskander missile tests.
Just starting to wake up on this side of the Atlantic: Washington Post has a Reuters report.
And Fox News piggybacks on The Times of London.