Responding to the U.S. top diplomat's speech on the Russia-Georgia conflict, the ministry said Russia was "prepared to deal with the American side in all formats" but would not "succumb to its rhetoric and get drawn into confrontation, either verbal or any other."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that Russia's "aggression" against Georgia last month had put the country on a path of "self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance," and urged Western states to stand up to Russia's "bullying" behavior.
The ministry said Rice's pledge in the speech to sponsor Russian judges was tantamount to interference in the country's judicial system. "We hope everybody understands that it is unacceptable," it said.
Rice also said the United States would not let differences with Russia's government "obstruct a deepening relationship between our societies" and promised further support for "all Russians who want a future of liberty."
Rice, however, rejected the idea that Washington and Moscow are engaged in a new Cold War.
The United States and other Western powers have criticized Russia for what they called an invasion of Georgia. Moscow said it was a response to Georgia's offensive to retake breakaway South Ossetia. Tbilisi claimed Russian troops were sent to topple President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Moscow later recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another Georgian breakaway territory, as independent states, which further strained relations with the West.
The Foreign Ministry said Russia did not pursue geostrategic interests in the brief war with the Caucasus state, but was forced to respond to Georgian aggression, and regretted Rice did not mention the massacre in South Ossetia staged by Georgian troops.
The rebel region earlier put the preliminary death toll at almost 1,700, the majority of the victims being civilians.
The ministry also backed Rice's appeal to continue cooperation against terrorism, overcoming the global food crisis and in nonproliferation.
The statement echoes President Dmitry Medvedev's remarks earlier Friday, when he said Russia did not want to isolate itself behind a new Iron Curtain over tensions with the West and blamed Western nations for pushing the country towards isolation.
