Russia hits back with its own sanctions after US 'hostile thrust'

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia imposed retaliatory sanctions on nine U.S. officials and lawmakers on Thursday as tension over Moscow's annexation of Crimea mounted, warning the West it would hit back over "every hostile thrust".

Deputy national security advisers Ben Rhodes and Caroline Atkinson and senators John McCain, Harry Reid and Mary Landrieu,

Dan Coats and Robert Menendez were among the Americans barred from Russia, the Foreign Ministry said.

The others were House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama.

Obama issued an order on Monday barring 11 Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean officials and lawmakers from the United States and freezing any assets they hold there. Those listed were deemed to have been involved in what the United States says is the illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crime region.

"We have repeatedly warned that sanctions are a double-edged instrument and would hit the United States like a boomerang," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "There must be no doubt: We will respond adequately to every hostile thrust."

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Ludmila Danilova; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Andrew Roche)