CRI听力:US, EU Slap New Sanctions on Russia over Ukraine

The United States and the European Union are slapping new economic sanctions on Russia over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

US President Barack Obama contends the new measures will make Russia's "weak economy even weaker".

"The United States is imposing new sanctions in key sectors of the Russian economy - energy, arms and finance. We are blocking the exports of specific and technologies to the Russian energy sector, we're expanding our sanctions to more Russian banks and defence companies and we are formally suspending credit that encourages exports to Russia and financing for economic development projects in Russia."

The European Union has also adopted new economic sanctions against Russia, targeting the oil sector, defense equipment and sensitive technologies.

Both the EU and the US contend Moscow is supplying tactical support for the rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow has been denying the allegations.

The new sanctions against Russia are also being fuelled by the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine earlier this month.

Kiev and its allies are pointing the finger at the separatists, saying they used a Russian surface-to-air missile to take the plane down, mistaking it for a Ukrainian cargo jet.

The separatists and Russia are blaming the Ukrainian military.

Heavy fighting between the rebels and government forces in areas around the crash site has been hampering the international investigation into the crash.

Meanwhile, the British government says preliminary findings from the black boxes of the crashed Boeing 777 are expected to be published next week.

The data from the black boxes had been analyzed in Britain and now turned over to the Netherlands which is leading the investigation.