I guess there was dancing in the streets for the election of Obama in more places than the Muslim world. Evidently, Russia had plenty to celebrate.

Reagan got concessions... back when it was possible to con the enemy into believing Star Wars might work.

By the time Bush attempted his give-away to the military industrial complex, all concerned knew Star Wars was a bluff.

Obama had to do something to differentiate himself from Bush, so...

Man, he got dick out of it. Reagan got stuff at the table with fairy tales like the Star Wars project. Smooth, dude.

Obama did this strictly for geopolitical purposes. He needed to get the Russians to drop their objections to a new round of sanctions against Iran and in order to get that done, he agreed to drop support for the missile shield, which was a favorite pet project of the neo-conservatives within the Bush Administration like Dick Cheney, who wanted to expand US influence closer to Russia's territory.

The Eastern Europeans aren't happy about this because they see the United States as a natural bulwark against potential Russian aggression. Remember that these countries like Poland and the Czech Republic have a historical aversion towards the Russians, given the years they forcibly under the Warsaw Pact. Obama is pursuing closer relations with Western European countries like France and Germany, but that was a trend that was begun during Bush's second term.