Russia to give 'asymmetric' answer to possible U.S. space militarization: minist

MOSCOW, June 17 -- Russia will give an "absolutely asymmetric" answer to the possible militarization of space by the United States, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin said here on Wednesday.

"Russia has a more adequate answer to the possible deployment by the United States of weapons in space, but we have no need to deploy in space expensive armaments for it; the answer will be absolutely asymmetric," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted the minister in charge of armaments as saying.

"There is no great problem in shooting down a spacecraft. In fact, Russia showed back in the 1960s, when two of its spacecraft docked with each other, that a spacecraft can approach another spacecraft," the Interfax quoted Popovkin as saying.

"We need to think twice about why we need to have weapons in space for space battles. We already saw this with the 'Star Wars' saga under (former U.S. President Ronald) Reagan, and you perfectly remember how this ended up. This was among the reasons behind the Soviet Union's breakup. We threw huge money into that," Popovkin said.

Russia has staunchly opposed the militarization of space.