Washington – US President Barack Obama on Monday slapped sanctions on two top aides to President Vladimir Putin and nine other people linked to Russia’s military incursion into Crimea as tensions increased between the two countries over the Ukraine crisis.
Facing one of his toughest foreign policy tests yet, Obama made clear the United States was prepared to impose more sanctions if Russia formally annexed Crimea in response to a weekend referendum in the region that Washington and its allies called illegitimate.
