The sanctions were a direct response to Moscow’s perceived unwillingness to pause the fighting in Ukraine.
Russia reacted with fury on Thursday after the United States imposed sweeping sanctions on its two largest oil companies, a move directly targeting the Kremlin’s most critical source of revenue that world leaders said keeps the war in Ukraine going.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Wednesday announced sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as nearly three dozen of their subsidiaries.
This marks the first major economic punishment on Moscow by President Donald Trump since his return to the White House for a second term, as he seeks to pressure both Russia and Ukraine to pause the fighting along the current front lines.
Putin, Allies Condemn Sanctions
Speaking to reporters at the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the sanctions as an “unfriendly act,” but said they “will not have a significant impact” on Russia’s economy.
“It is an obvious thing and it does not strengthen Russia-U.S. relations that have just started recovering,” he said, reported state news agency TASS. “Certainly, the U.S. administration harms Russia-U.S. relations by such actions.
“[The sanctions] are serious in nature and will have certain consequences, but they will not have a significant impact on the health of our economy.”
Putin then warned that restricting Russian energy exports would likely push global energy prices higher, noting that, unlike Russia, the United States consumes more oil than it sells.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a longtime Putin ally who now serves as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, was more blunt.
“The USA is our adversary, and their loquacious ‘peacemaker’ has now fully taken up the path of war with Russia,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel, referring to Trump.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Washington’s approach would backfire.
“If the current U.S. administration decides to follow the example of its predecessors, who tried to pressure or force Russia to abandon its national interests through illegitimate sanctions, the outcome will be exactly the same: a failure, both politically at home and harmful to global economic stability,” she said, reported TASS.
By Bill Pan
