MOSCOW, September 12. /ITAR-TASS/. The sanctions against Russia that U.S. President Barack Obama is to announce "have nothing to do with reality anymore,” Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin declared Friday.

Commenting on the new sanctions imposed on Russia by the west, Naryshkin cited a quotation which says that even if the shots in Sarajevo had not been fired there would have been other pretexts and causes to unleash World War I, and that echoes with the situation at the present day, he added.

“It seemed difficult, but the warring sides in the Ukrainian conflict have agreed to a truce. A very difficult process of the exchange of prisoners of war is going on. It seems natural that everyone should try to help, rather than break the fragile truce. Nevertheless, those in the Washington cabinets are announcing sanctions," Naryshkin said at a meeting of the Russian History Society.

"Obviously, they took advantage of the hardest internal conflict in Ukraine, its crisis and confrontation as a mere pretext. If there had been no such pretext they would have found another one," Naryshkin said.

U.S. President Barack Obama said that on September 12 the U.S. would announce new sanctions against Russia's energy and economics sector, but specified that it might "backtrack on the sanctions".

Washington is planning to impose restrictions on long- term loans to five Russian banks, including Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank.