Moscow: The Kremlin deplored Tuesday the United States` blacklisting of a high-ranking official and the prime suspects in the 2006 murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko as a move that further damages bilateral ties.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Washington`s decision to blacklist Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin and Litvinenko`s alleged assassins, lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, represented "further steps in the artificially created degradation of our relations".