The fact that the U.S. missile defence plan has caused unease in the Kremlin is also reflected in the statements made by the Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov in March. He said that Russia would do "everything possible to counter these threats when they take shape". He further mentioned that missile defence would not become a reality until 2015-2020, and by then the Russian Army would have undergone a thorough overhaul. The fact remains that a U.S. reactivation of missile defence will trigger reactions from other countries along the same lines. Russian fears of an allout global arms race are very real as most countries will, by the logic of missile dynamics, get hooked into the race and into building missile shields.

Reports in Izvestia, the Russian daily, indicate that following the U.S. decision to withdraw from the ABM treaty Russia has begun work on its own missile defence system. The System-135 of the Moscow Missile Defence system is expected to undergo thorough restructuring within a year and installation work is expected to be completed at the Volga Radar Station near Russia's border with Belarus. The complete upgradation of the missile defence system is expected to be completed over the next few years. Reports indicate that there are plans to modernise the system's energy and mechanical equipment, a computer complex, transmitting and receiving devices and other systems.