President Obama, after announcing new sanctions on the Russian economy on Tuesday, said he wouldn’t characterize the relationship between the U.S. and Russia as a return to the Cold War.
“No, it’s not the new Cold War,” Obama said when asked by a reporter if he would describe the situation that way.
The new sanctions will target the country’s energy, arms and finance sectors.
Obama said that the Russian-backed separatists still won’t cooperate with the international investigation into the downed Malaysian plane, and he mentioned the U.S. satellite images showing that Russia recently fired missiles across the border into Ukraine.
If Russia doesn’t change its policy toward Ukraine, the “costs will continue to grow,” Obama warned.
“Today is a reminder that the United States means what it says,” he said.
The president added that since the new sanctions were coordinated with similar efforts by the European Union, the move “will have an even bigger bite.”