“Change in missile defense plans a trump card up US sleeve”

One possible scenario is that Americans will now be pressing Russia to help them deal with Iran, thinks political analyst Viktoria Panova.

By abandoning its initial plans of building an anti-missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, Washington wanted to show “the positive way America thinks now.”

It was also done, Panova said, “to have some trumps up its sleeve.”

“America could say: Ok, we’ve done that, but we can reverse it or continue either with this scenario or a slightly modified one,” she said. 

“America can push Russia either on Iran or another issue of concern, so it’s very similar to what it was during the last days of the Soviet Union when America was playing with the ABM system being developed.”

Then, using that “threat” as an instrument, the US managed to alter the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that Russia was pushing for into a more favorable one for America.