U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, July 16, 2018. (REUTERS PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- New U.S. sanctions on Russia have further complicated opportunities for dialogue between the two countries on a host of outstanding issues, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.

"Sadly, the U.S. political elite are unable to accept a simple truth: sanctions are not capable of forcing Russia to turn off from a chosen path of firmly defending its national interests," the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

"Naturally, such steps by Washington do not contribute to a respectful and civilized bilateral dialogue and interaction," she added.

The U.S. administration imposed on Russia new sanctions over the alleged poison attack on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British city of Salisbury in March. Moscow has repeatedly denied its involvement.

The sanctions, which took effect on Monday, ban the supply to Russia of dual-use products, goods and technologies related to U.S. national security, as well as supplies of electronics, components and technologies for the oil and gas industry.

Using an invented pretext of the Skripal case, the investigation of which is far from complete, Washington has also questioned Russia's elimination of its chemical weapons arsenal in 2017, Zakharova said.

Russia sees Washington's decision as part of a deliberate policy to erode the international norms regarding arms control and non-proliferation, including banning chemical weapons, she said.

In a separate development, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin was studying the new sanctions in order to decide how to respond.