Moscow scoffs at new US sanctions, saying Washington ‘shouldn’t hold its breath’

Moscow on Friday dismissed a sweeping new round of sanctions imposed by the U.S. over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, saying Washington "shouldn’t hold its breath" in pressuring the Kremlin to stop the offensive.

The U.S. on Thursday announced nearly 100 sanctions targeting Russian energy production and revenue, the metals and mining sectors, defense procurement, and those involved in supporting Moscow’s war effort, according to a statement by the U.S. Treasury Department.

“Today’s actions demonstrate our further resolve in continuing to disrupt every link of [the] Russian military supply chain, and target outside actors who would seek to support Russia’s war effort,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement.

The aim of the sanctions is to disrupt Russia’s international supply chain for high-priority items, diminish its domestic industrial base, and impede its technological growth, the Treasury said. The measures also target seven Russia-based banks, an executive of one of those banks, and one Russia-based financial infrastructure entity, it said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry called the U.S. measures a continuation of an effort aimed at "inflicting a strategic defeat on Moscow." But the Biden administration "shouldn’t hold its breath," ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the local media "sanctions create additional problems. But we have adjusted to the sanctions. We have learned to hedge against sanctions risks.”

The U.S. Treasury also said it continues to work with international partners to prevent sanctions evasion and export-control violations through their jurisdictions. Since Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Russia has been hit by Western sanctions which have also targeted third countries helping Moscow evade trade restrictions.

The EU, meanwhile, is preparing a new round of sanctions against Russia, which is likely to include export restrictions on welding machines, chemicals and diamonds, among other items.