Russia scoffs at latest sanctions from US, EU

Russia on Wednesday dismissed new Western sanctions on the country’s defense, energy and financial sectors as a meaningless gesture of aggression from the U.S. and European Union.

Russia’s envoy to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said Wednesday that the pressure through sanctions “lead nowhere” and wouldn’t “contribute to de-escalation of the situation in Ukraine,” according to Reuters.

President Obama on Tuesday announced the sanctions would be Russia’s punishment for aiding separatists in Eastern Ukraine who are believed to have shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

{mosads}The sanctions target Russia’s state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation, which builds navy vessels, and three major Russian banks: VTB Bank, Russian Agricultural Bank and the Bank of Moscow.

Shares in VTB Bank dropped by 3 percent at the start of trading on Wednesday but later regained their lass, The Guardian reported.

The Bank of Moscow, meanwhile, said its progress “wouldn’t suffer at all from the imposed sanctions,” and Russia’s central bank promised it would support the sanctioned entities, multiple reports said.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted Wednesday that, “Obama’s decision to impose sanctions against the United Shipbuilding Corporation is a clear sign that Russian military shipbuilding is becoming a problem for Russia’s enemies.”

The chairman of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Alexei Pushkov, also blasted Obama for the rising tensions with the West.

“Obama won’t go into history as a peacemaker — everyone has already forgotten about his Nobel peace prize — but as the US president who started a new cold war,” he tweeted, according to the Guardian.

On Tuesday, Obama was asked if the stronger sanctions marked the opening of a new Cold War.

“It’s not a new Cold War,” Obama said. “It’s a very specific issue related to Russia’s unwillingness to recognize that Ukraine can chart its own path.”

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his government wouldn’t respond each time with retaliatory measures to Western sanctions and suggested they could embolden Russia.