Only hours after Senator Barack Obama won the presidential election, Russia’s President Dmitry Medve6dev announced his country would deploy missiles near Poland, which is a (key) NATO member.

Medvedev said the decision to deploy the Iskander missiles was caused by the Poland’s government and Washington’s agreement to build part of the U.S. missile defense system in the eastern European country.

The missiles will be deployed to the Kaliningrad region, which lies between Poland and the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania. Furthermore, Medvedev said, equipment to hamper the operation of the U.S. missile defense system would also be put in place.

It is as of yet unknown whether the Iskander missiles will be fitten with nuclear warheads.

“Mechanisms must be created to block mistaken, egoistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community,” the president said about the United States.

Medvedev also blasted the U.S. once again for alleged involvement in the Russian war against Georgia. He described this was as the “result of the arrogant course of the American administration, which did not tolerate criticism and preferred unilateral decisions.”

“From what we have seen in recent years, the creation of a missile defense system, the encirclement of Russia with military bases, the relentless expansion of NATO, we have gotten the clear impression that they are testing our strength,” Medvedev said.

He went on to say that the Russians “have no problem with the American people, no inborn anti-Americanism. And we hope that our partners, the U.S. administration, will make a choice in favor of full-fledged relations with Russia.”

Next Medvedev expressed the hope that Moscow and Washington will cooperate better after Barack Obama becomes president.

The decision to deploy missiles close the border with Poland is yet another sign that Russia is preparing for a new Cold War, in which it will attempt to bully its neighbors and the West into submission, as it did from 1945 until 1990.

This will require a strong response from the United States, which has to make clear that it will protect its allies no matter what, and that it is far from impressed by the tough rhetoric coming from Moscow.

On the other hand, the West and especially the United States should keep in mind that the expansion of NATO and now the missile defense system do most certainly worry Russia, which sees its influence in the region decrease year after year. A way has to be found to either comfort the Russians and let them accept the developments (unlikely), or to ignore their complaints and carry on down the path the West has embarked on in recent years (probably best option).

Of course one cannot help but wonder whether the Russians would have made this move if John McCain would have won the election – my initial view is that they would have; they threatened to do this weeks ago already.  I do wonder, however, whether Obama’s victory will have an impact on Russia’s behavior in the coming weeks and months – I fear it will – and whether this is the foreplay of (one of) the “international crisis” which would be caused to “test” Obama, Sen. Joe Biden was talking about last month – not unlikely.