Russia's Foreign Ministry on Saturday denounced new U.S. sanctions against Moscow's energy sector as an attempt to harm Russia's economy at the risk of destabilising global markets and said the country would press on with large oil and gas projects.

The White House, now unconcerned about the effect on gas prices and inflation, blacklisted two of Russia’s biggest oil producers and nearly 200 tanker ships.

Washington is also moving to severely limit who can legally purchase Russian energy, and going after what it called Moscow's "shadow fleet" of vessels that ship oil around the wor