Russia's "Adequate Response"

According to the New York Times and Yahoo News, Russia has decided to allow the US to ship weapons across its territory to Afghanistan, a long-sought move that bolsters US military operations but potentially gives the Kremlin leverage over critical American supplies.

So...the US now pays Kyrgyzstan more than 3X what they paid last year for the Manas air base to have easier access to Afghanistan, and the US pays that much because the Russians made a huge counter offer to block the deal, and now the Russians are allowing the United States through Russia? And they made this decision during an American Federal Holiday, so there's no response from the US...I feel like I'm missing information critical to making this all make sense. Let's see how Obama's upcoming visit goes...