Russia warns of 'painful' response if Donald Trump backs US sanctions

MOSCOW: Russia threatened to retaliate against new sanctions passed by the US House of Representatives, saying they made it all but impossible to achieve the Trump administration's goal of improved relations.

The measures push US-Russia ties into uncharted territory and "don't leave room for the normalisation of relations" in the foreseeable future, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday.

Hope "is dying" for improved relations because the scale of "the anti-Russian consensus in Congress makes dialogue impossible and for a long time," Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia's upper house of parliament, said on Facebook.

The bill passed by a vote of 419-3 on Tuesday strengthens sanctions against Russia. The measure, which now goes to the Senate, requires Trump to seek congressional approval before easing sanctions imposed under the Obama administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections and its support for separatists in Ukraine. The White House has sent mixed signals about whether Trump will sign the bill.