Aegis GMD has zero effectiveness against a missile field filled with SS-19s, or mobile SS-27s, or anything else that poses an existential threat to the United States. Russia knows this. "Destabilizing" would be an order of magnitude increase in the GMD interceptors at Greely and Vandenberg and the proliferation of battle management radars, and we aren't doing that.
And if you weren't paying attention, there's no "restart" of the arms race. While the US was involved in the -stans, Russia was moving forward with a variety of delivery systems. The race never stopped.
so... why is it there then? just curious. I think the official publicly touted reason at the time was to protect Romania from Iran, is that it?
At the beginning of this year, the CFR's Foreign Policy magazine said it might be destabilizing. Russia invaded the Ukraine a few months later.
So you say the US putting these military systems around eastern Europe was not a destabilizing move, but I think the past months has shown otherwise.