The Obama administration says it's focusing on short to medium-range missiles from Iran instead of a nuclear warhead. However, in Lithuania the abrogation of the Bush-era missile defense plan is perceived by some as a cave-in to Russia.

VILNIUS — U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to drop the missile-defense shield plans in Poland and Czech Republic is being attacked by Lithuanian political analysts who say the decision constitutes a Russian victory over the U.S. in Europe.

“I think Russia will see it as a bowing to their demands,” Nerijus Malinkevičius, a political analyst specializing on Russian relations told Baltic Reports. “But I would put it in a different context — how this will be received throughout Eastern Europe. There was already talk that America is losing its position and popularity in Eastern Europe.”

“America was a popular hero in the sense that they backed our governments and countries and now questions will be raised over its intent here. America has to think about its image in Eastern Europe,” Malinkevičius said.

Raimundas Lopata, director of the Vilnius University International Relations Institute, told Baltic Reports that the move by the new U.S. administration is disconcerting.

“We feel some sort of disappointment, but it necessary to count what It means in geopolitical terms. It is clear within the analysts here that Obama is looking for a new approach for Russia, but the question is, how will this look?” Lopata said. “You have to compare the Obama speeches in his first trips to the world – in the Middle East, in Europe and Russia. He was apologizing for the previous actions everywhere, but there were none made in Moscow – that’s a serious signal, but now for the analysts we have to see what it means.”

Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he expected the Obama administration to rescind the project. He said Moscow wouldn’t view the move as a concession but rather a reversal of a mistaken Bush-era policy. The Bush administration signed deals with both Poland and Czech Republic to place missile-defense systems there, a move that Russia took serious offense to.

The missile-defense system was intended to defend against a potential nuclear warhead from Iran, but Russia took it as a direct threat to their own capabilities.

Russia threatened a nuclear strike on Poland to deter them from continuing with the plans and began to deploy missiles in the Kaliningrad exclave but later back flipped on the plan.

The then-Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas said the Iskander missiles Russia wanted to deploy in the Kaliningrad region would have been a threat to Lithuania’s security. He said Russia has misinterpreted American intentions with their missile-defense components, which were to be installed in Poland.

“I think this is not the road Russia should take, as the PRG [anti-missile defense shield] is not aimed against Russia. We think there is another way — that of agreement and joint decisions rather than counteraction. The more weaponry is deployed the more the security situation in the region suffers and not just in Lithuania, but Kaliningrad as well,” the minister said.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will meet with Obama at next week’s U.N. General Assembly and G-20 meetings. Instead of a long-range nuclear warhead from Iran, the Obama administration says it is more concerned about small to medium-range missiles launched by Iran and will start a different defense program to counter that threat. To be implemented by 2015, it may also include installing American missile bases in Eastern Europe.