MOSCOW: Russian shares fell on Monday, after Russia, Iran and militias supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said a U.S. strike on a Syrian air base last week crossed "red lines" and that they would respond to any new aggression.
At 0732 GMT the dollar-denominated RTS index was down 1.5 percent to 1,097 points, while the rouble-based MICEXÂ was 1.1 percent lower at 1,998 points.
The United States fired dozens of cruise missiles at a Syrian air base on Friday from which it said a deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched earlier in the week, escalating the U.S. role in Syria.
The Times newspaper reported that Britain was pushing Western nations to impose new sanctions on Russia if it fails to cut ties with Assad.
Earlier in the year Russian assets had been supported by hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump would roll back at least some of the economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict.
Those hopes now seem dashed.
"The visit of U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson (to Russia) on April 12 should make the geopolitical backdrop more clear, and that will probably be the dominant theme of the next two-three days," Dmitry Polevoy, an economist at ING Bank, said in a note.
The rouble fell slightly on Monday but losses were checked by rising prices for oil, Russia's main export.
The Russian currency was 0.2 percent weaker against the dollar at 57.37 and had lost less than 0.1 percent against the euro at 60.70.
Brent crude oil was up 0.3 percent at $55.4 a barrel after hitting its highest in a month on Friday.
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