In March 2012, Fox News (and other media) reported on President Obama’s supposedly off-microphone comment to Russian President Medvedev. President Obama stated, “This is my last election. And after my election, I have more flexibility.” It was generally believed that this comment was in relation to a potential missile treaty involving defensive missiles in Europe and general disarmament. Unfortunately, it seems as if the Russians interpreted this statement as a sign of weakness on the part of America.

The Washington Free Beacon is reporting today:

Russian strategic nuclear bombers threatened U.S. airspace near Alaska earlier this month and F-15 jets responded by intercepting the aircraft taking part in large-scale arctic war games, according to defense officials.

The Russian war games began the same day President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a frosty summit meeting in Mexico June 18.

U.S. officials said the arctic exercises over the Russian Far East and Pacific appeared to be a further sign of Russia’s hardening posture toward the United States.

The Obama administration made no protest of the bomber intrusions, according to the officials, in line with its conciliatory “reset” policy of seeking warmer ties with Moscow.

This is just stupid. Why are we seeking warmer ties with someone who delights in threatening us?

The article further reports:

As part of the arctic military expansion, Russia announced May 30 it was re-opening arctic air bases that had been closed after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Russian officials have said the strategic air bases will be used for arctic operations and include airfields in the far north at Naryan-Mar, on Novaya Zemlya, and Franz Josef Land.

Naryan-Mar is a mainland strategic air base and Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land are islands.

Additionally, Russia has announced it is setting up an 8,000-troop Arctic Brigade that will be deployed on the Kola Peninsula, near Finland and Norway.

In 2010, Adm. James A. Winnefeld, then-commander of the Colorado-based U.S. North Command, said in an interview that Russia has continued to fly its strategic nuclear bombers near U.S. airspace as part of Moscow’s efforts to maintain what he termed the illusion of power.

“In some cases, this is about the illusion of power, where power is not quite there,” Winnefeld said from the Colorado Springs-based command known as Northcom. “They are trying to show the world that they are a powerful nation, and we’re not giving them the satisfaction.”

At some point, we need to remember who we are dealing with. One reason the Cold War ended was that the Russians were not able to keep up with American defense technology–the Star Wars technology had a lot to do with that. President Obama is seriously cutting back on all defense spending and making America able to defend herself or stand her ground in the new Cold War. Make no mistake, with Putin in charge of Russia, there will be a new Cold War.