Moscow threatens retaliation for new US sanctions

Russia will retaliate for the new sanctions imposed by the US over alleged Moscow involvement in the crisis prevailing in Ukraine, deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Monday.

"We will respond, of course. There are possibilities for such a response and there is a wide set of measures," Xinhua quoted the diplomat as saying in a media report.

Ryabkov assured the Russian response would be "painful for Washington", because "no one has a right to speak to Moscow in the language of sanctions".

Such attempts will hit those who are doing it, he added, calling the new US sanctions "disgusting".

"Colleagues in Washington utterly misunderstand what is going on in Ukraine," the diplomat said.

On Monday, Washington announced the third package of sanctions against Russia, targeting seven government officials and 17 companies.

These people, among them two from President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, and entities are hit with a visa ban and asset freeze in response to what the White House called Moscow's "continued illegal intervention in Ukraine and provocative acts".

The Obama administration also took steps against high- technology exports to the Russian defense industry.

According to Ryabkov, the announcement made by the White House spokesman Jay Carney showed the US has "completely lost the sense of reality" and Washington aggravates the crisis " deliberately".