US Intel 1, Russian Intel 0

Courtesy of Defenselink.mil

One of the major nuclear takeaways from Gates’ 9 June hearing in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee was that Russia is now more concerned about the Iranian missile threat than before, thereby potentially increasing prospects for joint missile defense in Europe.  Relevant press can be found here and here.  Highlight of the hearing (thanks to Federal News Service):

I first met with President Putin and talked about this, he basically dismissed the idea that the Iranians would have a missile that would have the range to reach much of Western Europe and much of Russia before 2020 or so. And he showed me a map that his intelligence guys had prepared, and I told him he needed a new intelligence service.

Awesome.  The degree to which Gates is so direct with not only a Senate Committee but the then-President of Russia is astonishing.  Time recently had a great piece on Gates where author Joe Klein remarks:

After a quietly impressive career in government that has spanned more than 30 mostly Republican years, Robert Gates is suddenly seeming almost, well, charismatic. He reeks authority. He is, according to several sources, the most respected voice in National Security Council debates. The President is said to love his unadorned manner. Much of which is attributable to the fact that, in the self-proclaimed twilight of his public career, Gates has emerged as that most exotic of Washington species - the bureaucrat unbound, candid and fearless.

There is no doubt Gates wants the ball but only time will tell how much of his ambitious agenda he can achieve.  On missile defense specifically, it will be interesting to see if Gates will rethink the funding priority of the third site.  At the hearing, he said

And I would say, although I took the money out of the ‘10 budget for the third site, the reason I did that is because we have enough money in the budget from ‘9 that would enable us to do anything in the way of construction necessary.

but if the Russians are really serious about cooperation it might be worth thinking about giving some money back to the third site looking into the future.