MOSCOW, July 17 (RAPSI) – The new US sanctions against Russian companies are illegitimate because they are not based on UN decisions, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

“Sanctions against Russian companies are illegitimate because they are not based on UN decisions and have been imposed arbitrarily,” Medvedev said at a government meeting.

The United States approved new sanctions against major Russian banks and energy companies on Wednesday, including Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank, Rosneft and Novatek.

The measures target equity financing and debt financing due in more than 90 days for Gazprombank and state-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB), and prohibit new loans with more than 90 days maturity from US institutions for Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer , Novatek, and the largest oil company, Rosneft.

These measures also froze all US assets of eight Russian defense firms and prohibited US nationals or anyone in the United States from dealing with them.

European leaders agreed at their summit on Wednesday to expand sanction criteria and to compile a list of companies and individuals, including Russian ones, against whom pinpoint EU sanctions would be applied by late July.