RUSSIA dismissed new US sanctions as useless at the weekend and said it would wait as long as necessary for Washington to recognise its right to the Crimean peninsula.

President Barack Obama approved new restrictions on Crimea on Friday, having imposed sanctions on Russia earlier this year.

The Russian Foreign Ministry regretted that “the US and Canada still cannot get over the results of a free vote in Crimea in March.”

Canada announced travel bans on Friday as well as restrictions on the export of oil technology.

Moscow insisted the new sanctions wouldn’t push Russia to give up Crimea since it was a “historic and integral part of Russia” and said it was working on retaliatory measures.

The ministry referred to Cuba where it took the US decades to restore diplomatic relations.

“The White House took half a century to admit blockading Cuba with sanctions was useless. We can wait too.”