A senior White House official said that the recent sanctions imposed by his country on Russia have achieved results "very close" to Washington's hopes, as tension appears to have begun to ebb between the two countries regarding Ukraine, after Moscow announced the withdrawal of part of its forces from the Ukrainian Peninsula Moscow annexed it 7 years ago.

"Our intention was to act proportionally, for our approach to be specific, and to signal that we have the ability to apply greater pressure if Russia continues or escalates its behavior," Dalip Singh, a senior White House aide for economic affairs, said in an interview with Reuters.

"The results so far are very close to what we had hoped for," the US official added.

Singh's statement came hours after the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Friday that it had begun returning military units from the Crimea peninsula, which Russia had annexed, to its permanent bases after the mobilization of tens of thousands of soldiers near the borders of Ukraine, which raised Western fears of a war.

The US official added, "There are tools that can achieve progress in a certain strategy, and in the case of Russia, the goal was to exert pressure to start a diplomatic path for more stable relations."

Sanctions package

Last week, the administration of US President Joe Biden imposed wide sanctions on Russia to punish it for its role in the Ukraine crisis, its interference in the US elections last year, and also its role in the major cyber attack on sensitive US institutions last year, which was denied by Moscow.

The recent US sanctions package on Russia included the inclusion of the Treasury Department - on the black list - of 8 individuals linked to the continuing Russian "occupation and oppression" in the Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The US administration also decided to expel 10 Russian diplomats, including intelligence officers, and to impose sanctions on 32 entities and personalities from Russia for interfering in the recent US elections.

Biden issued an executive order prohibiting a number of transactions between financial institutions in America and their Russian counterparts, especially participating in the main market for bonds denominated in the Russian ruble currency, and lending American institutions to their Russian counterparts in dollars or rubles.

President Biden’s decision allowed officials to easily expand sanctions on any sector of the Russian economy, in response to any future provocations, but Biden stressed at the time that he did not wish to escalate tensions.

Russian response

Russia responded to the US sanctions by ordering 10 US diplomats to leave the country, and suggested the return of the US ambassador in Moscow to his country for consultations, but it left the door open to further dialogue and a possible summit between Putin and Biden.

In a related context, the Kremlin said on Friday evening that President Putin signed yesterday a law that would impose restrictions on diplomatic missions in Moscow, and the president asked his government to define a list of "unfriendly foreign countries" to which these restrictions would be imposed.

The Kremlin statement added that the recruitment of personnel in diplomatic missions and other state institutions in Russia should be in a limited number, indicating that "if necessary," it is also possible to impose a complete ban on employment in those institutions.

This Russian step came days after the exchange of expulsion of diplomats between Moscow and a number of European capitals, including the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine, in addition to the United States.