Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after EU sanctions against Russia took effect on Friday that taking such a decision at the very moment when the peace process is gaining stability means choosing the path of disrupting the peace process. The same day, Russia’s parliamentary speaker Sergei Naryshkin dismissed the US sanctions on Moscow as “disconnected from reality”, and said that the Ukrainian crisis was an excuse for the US to drum up tensions with Russia. Under new sanctions, EU added 24 individuals in a blacklist of people facing travel ban and asset freeze, including new leaders of Donbass area and Crimea’s governmental members. So far, 119 individuals were put on the blacklist.  The bans also curb access to European capital markets for Russian firms and banks and limit exports of certain high-technology goods to Russia. Along with the EU, the US announced that Washington will increase its sanctions over Russian defense, financial, and energy industry. But both the US and the EU affirmed that they will reconsider new sanctions over Russia based on developments in Eastern Ukraine.