PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin slammed the latest round of US sanctions against Russia today, saying that they would stalemate bilateral relations and hurt business in both countries.

He was responding to US President Barack Obama’s announcement of broader sanctions targeting two major energy firms, including Rosneft, a pair of powerful financial institutions, eight weapons firms and four individuals.

The professed intention is to force Moscow to take measures to end the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

The US penalties, however, stopped short of the most stringent actions the West has threatened, which would be designed to fully cut off key sectors of Russia’s oil-dependent economy.

However, Washington officials said that those steps were still on the table if Russia fails to meet its demands to stop backing the anti-Kiev rebels.

Moscow has consistently denied being involved militarily with the forces in Donetsk and Luganov provinces, which have rejected rule from Kiev.

Mr Putin said that sanctions are driving relations between the two states “into a corner” as well as damaging the interests of US companies and endangering “the long-term national interests of the US government and people.”

The Russian president warned Washington that the sanctions would have a backlash effect on US companies working in Russia.

Rosneft and Russia’s largest independent gas producer Novatek is now barred from getting long-term loans from US entities.

Moscow-based investment bank Sberbank-CIB said in a note to investors that Russian companies cannot replace long-term loans from the US immediately.

Rosneft has a multibillion-dollar deal with ExxonMobil, which among other things allows Exxon to develop lucrative oil fields on Russia’s Arctic shelf.

“We gave this US company the right to work on the shelf. So, what, the US does not want it to work there now?” Mr Putin asked.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the “bullying” sanctions saying: “We consider the new round of US sanctions against Russia as a primitive attempt to take vengeance for the fact that events in Ukraine are not playing out to the tune of the script of Washington.”

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the sanctions are throwing Russia’s relations with the West back to the 1980s, adding that Russia “will have to pay more attention to military and security spending.”