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Russia hits back with its own sanctions after U.S. "hostile thrust"

by Reuters
Thursday, 20 March 2014 18:48 GMT

(Adds Menendez and McCain comments, last three paragraphs)

MOSCOW, March 20 (Reuters) - Russia imposed retaliatory sanctions on nine U.S. officials and lawmakers on Thursday as tension over Moscow's annexation of Crimea mounted, warning the West it would hit back over "every hostile thrust."

Three White House officials and five U.S. senators - Harry Reid, Robert Menendez, John McCain, Mary Landrieu and Dan Coats - were among the Americans barred from Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner was also on the list.

"We have repeatedly warned that sanctions are a double-edged instrument and would hit the United States like a boomerang," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "There must be no doubt: We will respond adequately to every hostile thrust."

Moscow's action followed U.S. sanctions on Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean individuals announced by President Barack Obama on Monday and again on Thursday.

The latest U.S. sanctions, which also involved a bank, targeted several individuals close to Russian President Vladimir Putin in retaliation for his military seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region. Any assets they have in the United States will be frozen and they will also be barred from U.S. travel.

The White House officials cited by Moscow were senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer and deputy national security advisers Ben Rhodes and Caroline Atkinson.

Lawmakers in Washington were quick to welcome their new designation.

"If standing up for the Ukrainian people, their freedom, their hard earned democracy, and sovereignty means I'm sanctioned by Putin, so be it," said Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

McCain threw in a bit of sarcasm.

"I guess this means my spring break in Siberia is off, my Gazprom stock is lost, and my secret bank account in Moscow is frozen," said the Arizona Republican, who traveled to Kiev in December and addressed huge crowds of protesters against what was then Ukraine's Moscow-backed government. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Ludmila Danilova, and Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Writing by Steve Gutterman and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Andrew Roche, James Dalgleish and Andrew Hay)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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