Steven Pifer, Brookings (USA)
Categorizing its military programs as countermeasures to Western military deployments has a long tradition with the Kremlin. Indeed, at the negotiation on intermediate-range nuclear forces in the early 1980s, the chief Soviet negotiator called the deployment of the Soviet SS-20 ballistic missile a response to the U.S. Pershing II. He did so with a straight face, which impressed his American counterparts, as the SS-20 was first deployed in 1976-seven years before the Pershing II. Moscow may even be getting a head start with its countermeasures. On May 4, Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said that Russia would create three new army divisions opposite NATO countries. In light of Moscow's recent belligerence, NATO has little choice but to take sensible steps to bolster its defenses, both to assure allies made more nervous by Russian actions and to deter the Kremlin from any foolhardy moves.