You're reading: Moscow vows to respond to new US sanctions (UPDATED)

The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the United States of escalating the confrontation after that country introduced new sanctions against Russian individuals and companies, and warned that such actions will be followed by a reaction from Moscow.

“By introducing new sanctions against Russian citizens and companies, the U.S. once again demonstrated that it has made a choice in favor of escalating the confrontation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary released on July 31.

“Such provocative actions not only ruin the Russian-American relations, they do not help our cooperation in resolving other global problems. Certainly, such a line will not be left without our reaction,” the ministry said.

“Such provocative actions not only ruin Russian-American relations, they do not help our cooperation in resolving other global problems. Certainly, such a line will not be left without our reaction,” the ministry said.

Last Thursday the U.S. extended its sanctions lists with a number of companies and individuals.

New entrants on the sectoral sanctions list are VEB and Rosneft companies, in particular, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RFPI) Management Company, EKSAR, MSP Bank, Globex Bank, VEB-Leasing, VEB Capital, the Federal Center for Project Financing, Svyaz-Bank, Prominvestbank (VEB’s Ukrainian subsidiary), Roseximbank, Resad, Rose Group, Veb-Engineering, VEB Asia, the Fund for the Development of the Far East, Belvnesheconombank, the North Caucasus Development Corporation, Kraslesinvest, RN-Yuganskneftegaz, Rosneft Finance, Rosneft Trading, Neft-Aktiv, the All-Russian Bank for Regional Development (controlled by Rosneft), RN Holding, Samotlorneftegaz, and others, according to a statement by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Being subsidiaries of the already sanctioned VEB and Rosneft, none of these companies could have claimed long-term financing or been listed in the U.S. anyway (this is exactly what the sectoral sanctions prohibit); formally, however, none of them was on the Treasury Department’s sanctions list until recently.

VEB and Rosneft declined to comment.

The blacklist (the Specially Designated Nationals List, or SDN) includes, in particular, businessman Boris Rotenberg’s son Roman Rotenberg who is a board member of the Continental Hockey League. Also added to the SDN is the long-time partner of Gennady Timchenko’s and former Surgutex co-owner Pyotr Kolbin; Ukrainian nationals Serhiy Kurchenko and Oleksandr Yanukovych, both are managers at Concern Kalashnikov; and the head of the Finnish energy trader SET Petrochemicals Oy, Kai Paanen (who is reportedly another partner of Timchenko’s).

The SDN List of legal entities includes the companies Timchenko had sold the day before the U.S. sanctions were introduced against him in March 2014: Airfix Aviation (Finland), IPP Oil Products (Cyprus). In addition, the list now contains SET Petrochemicals and Southeast Trading Oy from the same group of companies, as well as Southport Management Services Ltd. Also sanctioned is Langvik Capital which manages the Rotenberg family’s congress center in Finland.

The SDN list also includes the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, the Izhmash Concern, Ukraine’s MAKO Holding (which, according to the Treasury Department, is linked to O. Yanukovych) and Crimean ports.