February 14, 2008: Russia threatened that, if Ukraine joined NATO, and allowed parts of a U.S. missile defense system to be built in Ukraine, Russia would aim some of its ICBMs at Ukraine. The Russians are serious about this. There are numerous reasons why. Many Russians are still upset about how they lost the Cold War, and are no longer a superpower. The current crop of Russian leaders have been playing the nationalism card heavily. This includes making a lot of noise about NATO, and Cold War archenemy the United States, plotting to surround Russia and destroy it.
Westerners are perplexed at all this, but the nations of East Europe are not. These nations were tightly controlled by the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1989, and fear that the Russians are really serious about reestablishing that control, in order to provide a "buffer" against another invasion by some West European nation, or the Americans. East European nations want to join NATO in order to obtain more protection from Russia aggression. The Russians dismiss this as nonsense.
Russia has been vague about exactly who they are aiming their ICBMs at these days. The U.S. missile defense system is to protect Europe from nuclear missiles launched from the Middle East, most likely Iran (in another 5-10 years.) The Russians believe that this is just a cover story, and that the U.S. has another agenda that is not entirely clear just yet.
