"Until Kiev authorities take measures [to resume power supplies] without delay, certainly we will retaliate," Matviyenko said in reply to a question from TASS. "These crimes cannot be forgiven. They appear monstrous in the 21st century," she said.

MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. Russia will take urgent retaliatory measures against Ukraine if Kiev fails to restore energy supplies to Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, head of the Federation Council (parliamentary upper house) Valentina Matviyenko told reporters.

"If Kiev fails to repair [power transmission lines] or fails to make a decision, it will force us to take appropriate steps," she added, noting that measures were under consideration.

Blowing up pylons and blocking deliveries to Crimea could be assessed as a sign of radical nationalists’ growing influence on Kiev’s policies, Matvienko said.

"We get the impression that radical nationalists have been wielding more influence on Kiev’s policies and that the authorities cannot cope with it," the lawmaker said, adding that preventing cargo deliveries to the Black Sea peninsula "is a step to an economic blockade of Crimea and Sevastopol".

"It recalls well-known facts from history," she said. "Or Nazi methods when they besieged Leningrad [the former name of St. Petersburg] but which Leningrad withstood, lived through and won."

Four transmission lines were supplying Crimea with electric power from Ukraine until November 20, when two pylons were blown up and a state of emergency declared on the peninsula. In the early hours of November 22, another two pylons were attacked.

On Wednesday, repair teams began work on one of the lines transmitting energy to two districts of the peninsula’s Kherson region.