News Analysis: U.S.-Russia ties continue to fray after U.S. missile shield deployment in Romania

The U.S. deployment of a missile shield in Romania is unlikely to worsen the already poor relations between the United States and Russia, but could make it harder to improve the ties anytime soon, experts said.

On Thursday, the United States launched a missile defense system in Romania, which the Kremlin lambasted as a "direct threat" to Russia, although Washington maintained that the system is "defensive" and not aimed at Russia.

The U.S. move is expected to further strain its already tense relations with Russia, which began to sour in 2014 amid Moscow's absorption of Crimea, which Washington slammed as "aggression." Russia denied it, saying it is the choice of Crimean people.

After Russia's annexation of Crimea, the U.S.-led West has imposed substantial economic sanctions on Russia, and taken steps to reduce Moscow's international prestige, such as by removing Russia from the G-8, former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan and Georgia William Courtney told Xinhua.

While the U.S.-Russia relations are currently at a low point, the question remains whether they will improve.

Presumptive Republican Party nominee Donald Trump has been persistent in his calls for the United States to improve the sour relations with Russia, and said in April in a foreign policy speech that he believed in easing tensions.

"It is difficult to predict the future of U.S.-Russian relations. They have been subjected to a number of surprises in recent years, including the seizure of Crimea, the thrust into eastern Ukraine, and pressure on Turkey, a U.S. ally," said Courtney, now an adjunct senior fellow at the RAND Corporation.

"A new U.S. president and Congress will be elected in November, and this might influence relations," Courtney said.

But he added that a major change in relations with Washington may require a substantial Russian pull-back from eastern Ukraine.

Courtney said he believed that the missile defense system in Romania is incapable of defending against long-range nuclear-armed Russian ballistic missiles, such as the kind that can reach the U.S.

Still, the Kremlin is worried that future defenses could be more capable against theater-range systems or that the base in Romania could someday host other kinds of weapons, he said.

It remains unknown whether Russia will move to respond to the missile shield deployment.

Moscow could respond by deploying new forces in the region, or by exercising its forces in different ways, such that they posed greater concern and thereby might affect relations with NATO and the United States, said Courtney.

Daniel Kochis, national security research associate at the Heritage Foundation, told Xinhua that Russia's outrage over the missile shield is a bid to appear strong.

Protests and threats from Moscow in the past couple days were meant to showcase Russian President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader standing up to the West and feed into the narrative that Russia is under constant assault from the West, Kochis said.

He noted that Russia has spent billions of U.S. dollars to modernize its own nuclear forces and is developing its own ballistic missile defense system. Enditem