Russia should respond adequately to the "considerably expanded" military and security threats it faces, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Tuesday.

"Tension escalation along our borders increases the risk for Russia to be pulled into various armed conflicts," he said at a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev.

Among the major threats Russia faces, Serdyukov said "deployment of the global missile defense considerably violates the power balance and strategic stability as a whole," referring to the U.S.-led NATO global anti-missile system.

He said Russia has already started to study responsive measures that would be made public during an international conference on missile defense in Moscow in May.

As for counter measures, Serdyukov said Moscow would upgrade 10 first-strike missiles of Topol-M and Yars complexes, which account for 25 percent of all current Russian nuclear forces.

Russia, meanwhile, plans to put its newest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Bulava, in service in October and build eight nuclear strategic submarines to carry them by 2017.

Serdyukov said that between 2008 and 2011 Russia had acquired 39 inter-continental ballistic missiles, 12 Iskander missile systems, two submarines, nine warships and boats, and other weaponry and military equipment.

Moscow has long opposed the deployment of U.S.-led NATO missile defense facilities near its borders and has tried to seek legally binding guarantees that the missile shield would not target Russia.