MOSCOW, August 7 (RIA Novosti) - Economic sanctions against Moscow are negatively affecting the Russian economy, US President Barack Obama said Wednesday.
“Sanctions are working as intended in putting enormous pressure and strain on the Russian economy,” Obama said speaking at the press conference in Washington.
He added that the issue could be solved if Russian President Vladimir Putin takes steps to resolve the crisis in eastern Ukraine “through diplomacy and peaceful means.”
“We are doing exactly what we should be doing. And we are very pleased that our European partners have joined us, as well as a number of countries around the world,” Obama added.
Obama stressed that the crisis is not over killing more and more lives.
Moscow has repeatedly called for dialogue to settle the ongoing crisis in Ukraine peacefully. Moreover, it undertook a number of international initiatives to find a political decision to the conflict between Kiev authorities and independence supporters in eastern Ukraine.
On August 1, the European Union and the United States imposed a new set of economic sanctions against Russia, linking it to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The sanctions are designed to limit access to European capital markets for a number of Russian banks. Earlier, Washington had slapped sanctions on several Russian defense industry and energy companies.
Moscow has repeatedly denied all the allegations saying it never interfered with the Ukrainian internal affairs and stressed that the sanctions policy was unacceptable and counterproductive.
