"The Cold War is finished on our side, we have a very peaceful stance," Mikhailov said in a speech at Engles in southwestern Russia.

"But as far as the Americans are concerned it seems that given what they are producing and planning in the way of weapons the so-called Cold War is not over."

Mikhailov was speaking at the beginning of joint exercises with the armed forces of Russia and the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

Russian political and military leaders frequently warn Washington against reviving the Cold War, the 40-year conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union until the collapse of the latter at the beginning of the 1990s.

Mikhailov also said that Russia's Tu-160 strategic bombers would begin testing long-range cruise missiles by the end of August, and that Moscow was prepared to attack "terrorist bases" abroad.

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