Russia said on Friday that new sanctions imposed by the United States over its actions in Ukraine were "absurd", and that they would make it more difficult for foreign companies to do business.

"With each new wave of economic barriers, the inefficiency and absurdity of this approach becomes more obvious," Russia's embassy in the United States said.

It added that foreign entrepreneurs and companies were the first to suffer from new sanctions and that their ability to continue working with Russian partners was "constantly shrinking".

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday that it was sanctioning dozens of people and entities it said were linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It also labelled the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary group fighting in Ukraine, as a "transnational criminal organisation" responsible for widespread human rights abuses. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Robert Birsel)