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Russia will respond in an "intellectual" way to moves by the United States to position its anti-ballistic missile defense systems in locations that threaten Russia, the foreign minister said Friday.
Sergei Lavrov said Moscow does not intend to spend money on a senseless arms race.
Russian analysts argued earlier in the week that Washington's consistent efforts to redeploy its missile defense system closer to Russia's borders suggest the U.S. seeks to revive the Cold War.
Washington has recently moved its largest sea-based missile defense radar in the Pacific from Hawaii to the Aleutian Islands, not far from Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. It has also announced plans to install a radar system in the Czech Republic and a missile interceptor in Poland, which it says it needs to protect itself against a potential threat from Iran.
"We will seek, and are already seeking and finding, what I would call an 'intellectual response'," the Russian minister said in an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel.
Moscow has always strongly resisted the deployment of a missile shield in its former backyard in Central Europe, describing the plans as a threat to national security.
At an annual news conference at the beginning of the month, President Vladimir Putin called Washington's justification of the missile shield unconvincing, and pledged to amend Russia's military strategy.
"All our responses will be asymmetric, but highly effective," the president said.
