In the dispute over U.S. missile defences in Europe, Moscow’s political elite would prefer tough negotiators on both sides, says Ruslan Pukhov from the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.

NATO will be sticking to its guns under a new U.S. president. But the alliance could find tough opposition from a Russia with two strong leaders – Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, says security expert Andrey Demurenko.

The main outcome of the Sochi summit is that both Russia and the U.S. have expressed a willingness to settle their differences, according to political analyst Kirill Koktysh.