Thursday, NATO announced that Russia’s Defense Ministry has decided to “halt international military cooperation events between Russia and NATO countries until further instructions." 
Russia’s ambassador to Israel said Thursday that his country has no intention of supplying Iksander missiles to Syria. Meanwhile, Russia appears to have followed through on its threat to break ties with NATO, according to a spokesperson for the Western alliance, shortly after Syrian pressure on Russia to do so.
Acting embassador Anatoly Yurkov’s statement to the Jerusalem Post came the day after Syrian President Bashar Assad told a Russian newspaper, prior to his visit to the Russian republic, that he would be willing to station the advanced Russian missile system throughout Syrian territory.
Assad’s statements came in the context of a growing entente between Syria, long alienated from the West by it’s pro-Soviet and pro-terror position, and a Russia that has come under international condemnation for its crushing offensive against the Republic of Georgia. Assad came to Russia Thursday and expressed his support for Russia against Georgia in personal talks with new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Syria has long been an ally of Russia, stemming from the days of the cold war when it was a client state in Moscow’s rapid and pervasive incursion into the diplomatic theater of the Middle East. In addition to Syria, the Soviet Union backed Egypt and other Arab nations militarily in every war with Israel since the Jewish State’s independence. In the 1967 and 1973 wars, Israel was known to have shot down Soviet pilots flying Egyptian planes.
The Iskander missile proposed for Syria is a far more advanced and lethal projectile than a Katyusha rocket or Scud missile. Having a range of 280km in its export version, the missile, if fired from Syria’s border at the Golan Heights, could hit almost every major population center and military target in Israel. It can destroy critical civilian infrastructure facilities, such as roads, bridges and large buildings; enemy rocket and missile equipment in the air or on the ground, including missile defense systems; and it can wreak havoc on civilian and military aircraft on the ground. It is classified as a quasiballistic missile, a recent innovation allowing for a lower flight trajectory, making it much harder to predict where it will hit.
"Why would we do that?" Ambassador Yurkov said when questioned about Assad’s hint of an offer to host the missile system, which the Syrian leader said would serve as a counterbalance to the US-supplied missile shield in Europe. Yurkov added that Russia had no interest in upsetting the strategic balance in the region.
As tensions mount between Russia and the West in the aftermath of the former’s invasion of Georgia, the US signed an agreement with Poland Wednesday to install a defensive missile defense system in the Eastern European country, situated less than 300 miles from Russia at its closest point. Meanwhile, Assad urged the Russian president to sever all ties with NATO, which Russia has in fact announced it will do.
Despite the Russian Ambassador’s denial that missile sales are not part of the agenda in the current Syria-Russia talks, Russia’s foreign minister admitted that the sale of a wide array of advanced heavy arms, including medium-range anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missile systems and Mig-31 fighter jets to Syria will be discussed as a key part ofAssad’s visit. In fact, when asked by reporters about his country’s plans to sell the Iskander Missiles, the Pantsyr-S1 air defense missile system, the BUK-M1 surface-to-air medium-range missile system and other strategic and tactical arms to Syria, FM Sergei Lavrov said, simply: "We are ready to consider requests from the Syrian side on buying more arms.”
Most of Syria’s military is Soviet or Russian made, and deals made with Syria since the breakup of the USSR have included the sale of Russia's advanced Strelets surface–to-air system.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Ash-Sharq il-Awsat reported that the Syrian president is keen to see a wedge driven between Russia and the West over the conflict in the Caucasus and said that Assad will try to exploit tensions between Moscow and the West in order to strengthen Russia’s military support for Damascus. Assad reportedly told his hosts that Israel supplying military assistance to Georgia proved that it was time for Russia to sell arms to other countries in addition to Syria.
Assad’s request followed Russia’s announcement that it plans to sever ties with the Western alliance, urging it to follow through on its threats, which Russia apparently has: Thursday, NATO announced that Russia’s Defense Ministry has decided to “halt international military cooperation events between Russia and NATO countries until further instructions."
Despite what to many seems like the possible beginning of a new Cold War, on top of the Russian foreign minister’s admission that his country may very well refurbish Syria’s military, including missiles, Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni chose to believe the Russian ambassador’s denial of a missile sale.
“"I think that the connection between [Israel] sending some weapon to Georgia and [saying] that means [Russia] will bring missiles to Syria is wrong. I mean Russia has its own interests in the region. No one wants to destabilize the region," said Livni to reporters in Israel, adding that she believed Russia’s approach to would be measured.