国际英语新闻:Russia mulling retaliatory measures to Western sanctions: Putin

DUSHANBE, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow was mulling response measure to the latest round of Western sanctions.

"The government is thinking about this (response) ... There are certain negative things but if we look at the problem as a whole then there is more positive about the sanctions than negative," Putin told journalists after a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit here.

The president mocked the European Union (EU)'s fresh round of sanctions, saying "I welcome this EU decision: the less our officials and corporate executives travel abroad and deal with current affairs, the better," Interfax news agency reported.

The same applies to the State Duma, lower house of the Russian parliament, as deputies should speak to their voters more often, the president said.

The latest EU sanctions restricted three major Russian oil companies and three defense companies from seeking finance at European capital market. The 28-member bloc also added 24 individuals, including senior Russian lawmakers, onto the list of travel bans and asset freezes. The United States also announced new sanctions on major Russian companies.

Noting the Ukraine crisis has been used as an excuse to " reanimate" the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Putin said the timing of the sanctions on Russia could be an evidence that perhaps someone doesn't like the peaceful scenario of the Ukrainian situation.

Meanwhile, he said using sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy was not effective and will always produce boomerang effect.

The United States and its allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia over its alleged destabilizing role in the Ukraine crisis, which Moscow repeatedly denied.