Russia Pulls Out Of Arms Deal In Anger Over "Missile Defense"

From the New York Times:

President Vladimir V. Putin said today that Russia would suspend its compliance with a treaty on conventional arms in Europe that was forged at the end of the cold war.

Instead, Mr. Putin said, the Kremlin would use its future compliance with the treaty as a bargaining point in the dispute with United States over American proposals to install missile defenses in Europe.

Mr. Putin’s announcement, made in his annual address to Parliament, underscored the Kremlin’s anger at the United States for proposing a new missile-defense system, which the Bush administration insists is meant to counter potential threats from North Korea and Iran.

Of course, we've spent over a hundred billion dollars, since 1983, including 7.8 billion in fiscal 2006, for a technology that repeatedly fails tests, except for those that are very carefully rigged. After a "successful" test, last summer, CBS reported:

Stephen Young, a senior analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that advocates curbing the spread of nuclear weapons, said the demonstration was still far from replicating an actual missile attack, he said.

“They know the when, the where, the what (of the target missile) ... where it's coming from, the size of the warhead,” he said by phone from Maryland.

Which is exactly the conditions under which a real attack would occur. Right?

Meanwhile, Russia is hinting at a new arms race.

RIA Novosti:

U.S. plans to expand and deploy elements of its missile defense system around the world threaten the start of a new arms race, a Russian expert said Wednesday.

In January, the U.S. announced plans to deploy a radar facility in the Czech Republic and a missile base in Poland to counter possible attacks from Iran or North Korea, whose nuclear programs have provoked serious international concerns. Moscow has strongly opposed the U.S. plans, saying they would threaten Russia's security and destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

Sergei Rogov, head of the Institute of the U.S. and Canadian Studies, said that today strategic stability in the world is maintained by treaties limiting strategic offensive weapons and banning strategic missile defenses, which are due to expire in the near future.

With Putin pulling out of a conventional arms pact, is there any doubt about what he's considering doing when the missile treaties expire?

In other words, we're wasting billions of dollars on a technology that doesn't work but that does undermine our national security by provoking other nations into distrust and hostility. Sound familiar?