Russia reacts to new EU and US sanctions

 (Vatican Radio) Russia has warned the European Union that new sanctions will backfire as it plans to seek investments elsewhere amid the biggest East-West confrontation since the Cold War. The warning came after the EU and United States released details of new sanctions aimed at hurting Russia's economy, while American lawmakers considered military aid to Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists fight against government forces.

Regional correspondent Stefan Bos reports: 

Sanctions against Russia published by the U.S and EU go much further than earlier penalties as part of efforts to punish Moscow for allegedly supporting the rebels in eastern Ukraine and its annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

While previous penalties mainly targeted individuals, the new measures broadly limits the trade of weapons, as well as technology that can be used in the oil and military industries.

The EU has also put its capital markets off-limits to Russian state-owned banks and bans several investments in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula which was annexed by Russia. And for the first time, the European Union targets Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, subjecting three of his long-time associates to EU-wide asset freezes and travel bans.

Among the individuals is Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's former judo partner and a major shareholder of a civil engineering company that received a public contract for a study on building a bridge from Russia to Crimea.

The EU blacklisted three more companies and eight additional individuals, bringing the total to 95 people and 23 entities that have been hit with EU-wide asset freezes and travel bans.

However Russia's ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov has condemned the measures.

"The sanctions that the EU is envisaging against Russia, will certainly backfire," he told Euronews television. "Not because of counter measures that Russia may impose, but [because] the EU business community, they will suffer. And EU economies will suffer," Chizhov said.

"We will certainly be looking at perhaps other markets , other sources of investment....The world is not limited to the European Union,” the envoy warned.

Yet, for now the West is not backing down with Republican and Democratic senators in the U.S. calling for military aid to Ukraine, following closed door meetings with officials of President Barack Obama's administration. So far, the Obama administration has said however that it doesn't believe U.S. military assistance is necessary. 

The talks came while raging battles between government forces and pro-Russian separatists prevented investigators to reach the site in eastern Ukraine where a Malaysian Airlines passenger plane was shot down killing 298 people on board, most of them Dutch nationals

Dutch and Malaysian leaders are meeting to discuss securing full access to the crash site, two weeks after flight MH17 went down. The United States says pro-Russian rebels with Russian training appear to have fired the missile that destroyed the aircraft. Russia denies supporting the rebels and blames Ukraine's government for creating a situation in which the plane could crash.