Washington Says Obama, Putin Spoke about U.S. Sanctions

President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Thursday about tough new sanctions imposed on Moscow on Ukraine.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest did not divulge other topics of the conversation. The Kremlin however said that the two leaders discussed the reported crash of a Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine.

Earnest said that the call took place at the request of the Russian government, a day after the United States slapped new sanctions on Russian energy, defense and financial firms to punish what it says are violations of Ukraine's sovereignty.

"The topic of that phone call was to obviously discuss the sanctions regime that the president and his team and European leaders announced yesterday," Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One as Obama flew to Delaware.