Russia feeling impact of sanctions: US Treasury Secretary

Russia has started feeling the impact of sanctions and the new curbs announced by President Barack Obama will have serious consequences on the its economy, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said.
"Russia has already begun to feel the impact of the international community's united effort to respond to its unlawful and provocative acts, and the actions we have taken today will ratchet up the pressure on the Russian economy even more," Lew said in a statement yesterday.
"The sanctions we announced today will have serious consequences, and they send a clear signal to the Russian government that their recent actions undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine will not go unanswered," he said hours after Obama announced new set of curbs on Russia in retaliation of Ukraine crisis.

Lew also threatened to designate entities and individuals in key sectors of the Russian economy, such as financial services, energy, metals and mining, engineering, and defense and related materiel.
"This provides us with broader tools to highlight the future choices facing Russia's leadership, and our use of these tools will be based on careful consideration of what will be most effective in meeting that objective," he added.
Stating that Russia still has the opportunity to de-escalate the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, he said the US was prepared to take additional steps to demonstrate that there are cost for violating international law.

"With its currency near an all-time low, its stock market down twenty per cent this year and a marked rise in interest rates, Russia has already started to bear the economic costs of its unlawful effort to undermine Ukraine's security, stability and sovereignty," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S Cohen.
"As Obama has made clear, we will continue to impose costs in direct response to Russia's provocative acts, even as we have made clear there is a path to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine that respects Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and takes account of Russia's legitimate interests," he said.