Instead of relaxing, under the common threat of the global financial crisis and in the light of new treaties against arms proliferation, the centuries-old tensions between the US and Russia have become even higher. As a result, or perhaps as a cause – who knows anymore? – the Russian military officials have announced they will equip their missiles with a series of upgrades that will enable them to avoid US weaponry and breach missile shields.

More specifically, the Interfax news agency cites the chief of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel-General Nikolai Solovtsov, as stating that their intercontinental ballistic missiles will become more modern, so that they will be protected from US' missile defense system. The warheads will be enhanced so as to be able to fly "outside the range" of the space-based system, and to perform sharp dodging maneuvers, while the novel RS-24 missiles will be provided top-notch equipment that will allow to penetrate a missile shield.

The source of these measures proved to be the Washington's refusal to negotiate a worldwide ban of space weapons with China and Russia. Solovtsov thinks the US officials are considering a scenario where their first nuclear strike destroys the majority of Russian missiles and the little number of Russian weapons remaining quickly obliterated by the US missile defense system. "The Americans will never be able to implement this scenario, because Russian strategic nuclear forces, including the Strategic Missile Forces, will be capable of delivering a strike of retribution under any course of developments," he states, quotes MSNBC.

Furthermore, the US intends to install a contingent of ten missile interceptors in Poland, as well as a dedicated radar in the Czech Republic (supposedly non-related to Russia, but with Iran), strongly criticized by the Kremlin as potentially triggering a weapon race. Russians have responded by threatening to deploy short-range missiles batteries in Kaliningrad, close to Poland, unless the US drops their plans. With such approaches to global disarmament – a clash of titans offered as an example to the other nations by the two most important countries that should be the first to drop weapons – who can effectively anticipate what the fate of the world will eventually be?