In an inspired move hailed as “arguably the most concrete shift in foreign policy from that of the Bush administration, Obama might have just about made up for his disastrous appointment of Michael McFaul as his Russia advisor by scrapping plans for a European missile shield.

Even the Daily Telegraph, while deriding the US President for handing “the Kremlin a coup that will boost Mr Putin’s influence at home and abroad”, concedes that “Barack Obama’s diplomatic “reset” with Russia now has real teeth”.

Now that the ball is in Russia’s court, will the Kremlin “choose to frame the decision as an overdue correction of a Bush-era mistake rather than a real concession that requires reciprocity? That remains the 64,000 ruble question“.

Many signs point to the latter.  The Guardian reports that “Fyodor Lukyanov, editor in chief of Russia in Global Affairs, believes the wheels will start turning more rapidly. “We can expect the Start talks to be completed by the December deadline and the bilateral atmosphere will surely improve,” he said”.

So far, Medvedev has welcomed the decision but has not definitively settled on any of the 64000 rouble sides.

His statement that “Obama was “correcting” the US approach to missile defence” leaves open the chance that he does not consider the move to require any quid pro quo. This would be a grave mistake, of the sort the US made when it treated Gorbachev’s concessions on Eastern Europe as ‘corrections’ unworthy of reciprocation.

Let’s hope that, even if he does not consider the US move a concession to Russia (but rather a rational decision based on the ineffectiveness and cost of the ABM system as well as the infancy of the Iranian threat) he gives Obama te benefit of the boubt and chooses detente.