Putin declines tit-for-tat sanctions against West

Ukraine crisis

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday turned down governmental proposals to impose retaliatory sanctions against the West, insisting that those hostile moves cannot hinder Eurasian integration.

"The government ... has already proposed some retaliatory steps. I think there's no need," Putin told reporters in Minsk, the Belarusian capital.

Meanwhile, he warned, "if something like that continues, we will of course have to think about who works in the key sectors of Russian economy and how, including in the energy sector."

The president, after attending a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Council, said he was confident that the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty will be signed in due time - on May 29.

"We have made considerable progress and there are all grounds to think that the document will be signed as it was initially scheduled ... Sanctions (against Russia) will not tell on the Eurasian integration," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.