Four-star Army Gen. Yury Baluyevsky, the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, told reporters in Moscow Monday that Kremlin planners did not believe U.S. assurances that plans to deploy 10 anti-ballistic missile interceptors in Poland over the next three years were only to protect the United States and Western Europe from the threat of future Iranian nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.

RIA Novosti reported that Baluyevsky said Russian leaders were convinced the interceptor deployment was planned with an expanded anti-Russian role in mind.

"Of course a dozen such missiles as the Americans are planning to deploy in Poland -- unproven and untested as they are -- are not seen as a direct threat to Russia's deterrent capability," the Russian chief of staff said, according to the RIA Novosti report. "However, the U.S. doctrine treats missile defense as part of a broader 'strategic triad,' which also includes offensive strategic weapons.

"We are sure that U.S. missile defense capability, including a proposed European site, would develop, and its anti-Russian capability would grow in the future," Baluyevsky said. "In such an environment, we would be forced to take appropriate counter-measures."

Over the past year, U.S.-Russian relations have deteriorated to their worst point in nearly a quarter of a century, primarily because of Russian anger over Washington's determination to push ahead with plans to deploy the 10 ABM interceptors in Poland and an advanced radar system to direct them in the neighboring Czech Republic.