The latest U.S. penalties against ’s inner circle may provoke the Russian president into escalating the Ukraine crisis without crippling key sectors of his nation’s economy. The sanctions imposed by the Obama administration yesterday on seven officials and 17 companies won’t go unanswered, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax. While markets showed relief as Russia ’s largest banks avoided U.S. measures, Putin may take this round personally, according to Konstantin Simonov, president of Russia’s National Energy Security Foundation. “Putin has been declared evil” and singled out personally by the U.S., Simonov said. “He won’t be able to respond economically, so he’ll retaliate politically. There will be escalation in the east of Ukraine and a new spiral of sanctions.” Warned by U.S. Secretary of State about making an “expensive mistake” in Ukraine, Putin has seen his approval rating at home soar to a six-year high after the seizure of […]