WASHINGTON, March 12 (RAPSI) – The US House of Representatives adopted a non-biding resolution in a 402-7 vote on Tuesday to denounce Russia’s actions in Ukraine and to urge the White House to exclude it from the G8 and to impose sanctions on Russia.

The lawmakers who voted for the resolution also called for sending OSCE observers to the Crimea and other Ukrainian regions and urged NATO to suspend military cooperation with Russia, including the supply of military equipment.

The resolution urges the Obama administration to “work with our European allies and other countries to impose visa, financial, trade, and other sanctions on senior Russian Federation officials, majority state-owned banks and commercial organizations, and other state agencies, as appropriate.”

On Wednesday, veteran Russian lawmaker, controversial right-leaning Liberal-Democrat party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky called the measures proposed by the US Congress "barbaric." According to Zhirinovsky, any sanctions imposed over this matter shoudl be treated as a personal insult. "We might as well demand expulsion of the US [from the G8], for Kosovo, Libya, Afghanistan and so on," the politician added.

President Putin has said that potential sanctions over Ukraine would strike both ways because everything is interdependent in this world.

The House resolution also proposes giving economic assistance to the new Ukrainian authorities and easing Ukraine’s energy dependence on Russia.

Commenting on the possibility of US financial assistance to the current Ukrainian authorities, President Viktor Yanukovych said during a news conference in Rostov-on-Don, Russia that Washington has no right “to finance bandits.”

The pro-Russian government of the Crimea declared independence Tuesday ahead of a referendum scheduled for March 16.