WASHINGTON, May 07, /ITAR-TASS/. The USA will apply sanctions against whole sectors of Russia's economy if Moscow recognizes results of the forthcoming referenda in Donetsk and Lugansk on a state independence of those regions and brings its troops to them, Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, said Tuesday.

Speaking in the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee at hearings on the situation in Ukraine, she maintained that Russia was implementing the "Crimea game diagram" again. If referenda are really held this coming Sunday in order to proclaim the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk republics, the scenario would mirror what happened in Crimea, the US State Department official believes. She said Russia, supposedly, would then recognize that (referenda results) and send peacekeepers in order to protect them (Donetsk and Lugansk republics) and that would, doubtless, entail application of sectoral sanctions.