Trump’s Sanctions Put Him on “Warpath” with Russia, Says Medvedev
Donald Trump has put the US on the “warpath” with Moscow with his decision to impose sanctions and cancel a peace summit, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said. The Telegraph has more.
On Wednesday night, the US President announced sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. The measures followed the collapse of a proposed meeting with Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin had signalled it was unwilling to meet America’s terms for a ceasefire.
“The US is our enemy, and its talkative ‘peacemaker’ has now fully embarked on the warpath with Russia,” Mr Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
“The decisions taken are an act of war against Russia. And now Trump has fully aligned himself with loony Europe,” said the Deputy Chair of Russia’s National Security Council, reigniting his war of words with the US President.
The European Union also announced new sanctions on Russia, including a ban on the import of liquefied natural gas. The natural gas ban will phase out imports rather than halt them immediately.
On Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was confident European leaders would now move to seize €210 billion (£180 billion) in frozen Russian assets, despite objections from Belgium.
“I share the Belgian Prime Minister’s concerns but am confident we will take a step forward,” Mr Merz told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels.
The EU also imposed new travel restrictions on Russian diplomats in the Schengen Zone and prohibited another 117 ships in Russia’s shadow fleet, a clandestine armada of tankers that ship oil in breach of Western sanctions, from accessing EU ports.
Mr Trump’s decision to impose sanctions marks the latest shift in his relations with Putin, who has frustrated the President’s desire to capitalise on the ceasefire in Gaza with a deal in Ukraine.
“Look, these are tremendous sanctions,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “These are very big ones that are against their two big oil companies, and we hope that they won’t be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled.”
He added that the sanctions were designed to push Putin back to the negotiating table.
“Hopefully he’ll become reasonable, and hopefully Zelensky will be reasonable,” he said. “You know, it takes two to tango, as I say, and we’ll find out.”
The initial measures on Russian oil are unlikely to make much difference to Russia’s economy. However, oil prices jumped by almost 3% (more than $2 per barrel) following the announcement, which also included a threat to impose ‘secondary’ sanctions on foreign buyers of Russian oil.
The sanctions mean that any Russian assets held by the companies in the US will be frozen. Banks or people who deal with the two oil companies and their subsidiaries could also face sanctions.
Mark Rutte, the head of Nato, said the move was about “changing the calculus” by putting more pressure on the Kremlin.
He joined Mr Trump in the White House after flying to Washington to deliver a 12-point peace plan drawn up by Europe.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s President, hailed the US’s and EU’s measures as he arrived for a summit of European leaders in Brussels to discuss support for his war-torn country.
Ahead of the talks, Belgium threatened to derail plans for a €140 billion loan using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war efforts for the next three years.
Its Prime Minister, Bart de Wever, said he would “do everything” in his power to block the planned loan unless the EU’s member states agree to share the burden of any financial risk. …
In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Mr Trump confirmed the summit [with Putin] had been cancelled.
“Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” Mr Trump said. “It’s time to make a deal. A lot of people are dying.”
Worth reading in full.
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The shrill tones of panic echoing around the Kremlin.
‘In the EIA’s September 2026 Short Term Energy Outlook, they predict that Brent crude prices will average ~$51/BBL in 2026 (vs. $68/BBL in 2025), driven by oil inventory builds as OPEC+ supply increases.1 The investment bank Goldman Sachs on August 27, 2025, confirmed the EIA’s prediction, with a base case forecast for Brent crude oil in the low $50s/BBL by late 2026, citing a persistent surplus and large OECD stock builds.2 Other industry outlets have also echoed the EIA’s path for oil prices to be in the high-$60s in 2025, falling to approximately $51/BBL in 2026.3
Why are lower oil prices expected in 2026? Forecasts emphasize supply growth and inventory builds as key drivers; other downside price risks include demand softness.’
If those predictions are correct, Putin is toast.
President Trump likes him and is trying to save him but Putin is now too weak to offer any deal that both propitiates his claque and is acceptable to the West.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/talks-could-have-ended-war-ukraine
Since its founding in 1922, Foreign Affairs has been the leading forum for serious discussion of American foreign policy and global affairs.
Yep, definitely got their finger on the pulse in the Kremlin.
And for many years they peddle globalism and the end of nation states. That is leftism.
Many years ago I came across this magazine at airports and used to find it informative. Now I avoid it.
‘We were very close in mid-April 2022 to finalising the war with a peace settlement,” one of the Ukrainian negotiators, Oleksandr Chalyi, recounted at a public appearance in December 2023. “[A] week after Putin started his aggression, he concluded he had made a huge mistake and tried to do everything possible to conclude an agreement with Ukraine.’
Putin wants peace but his phone calls with President Trump are writing cheques that his power in the Kremlin can no longer cash.
If the oil price forecasts for 2026 are correct, then Russia is doomed.
President Trump and Putin now have only two hopes and both of them are President Xi.
You really don’t have a clue, do you? Completely blinded by EU, NATO and US Neocon propaganda!
Whereas you are a personal crony of many of the key protagonists and have some first hand obtained fascinating and essential insights to share with us…
or….
apparently not….
Putin has been toast so many times over the past few years – he must now just be ash.
‘US President Donald Trump has indicated that he will ask China to stop its purchases of Russian oil to end the conflict in Ukraine in his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in South Korea.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that he plans to talk to Xi about how they can end the war with Russia and Ukraine, whether through oil or energy.
Trump has been criticizing China for funding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through its purchases of Russian oil.
Trump said he thinks Xi is going to be “very receptive,” adding that he thinks the Chinese president would like to see the war end.
Trump described Xi as a “very strong leader of a very big country” who can have a big influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin.’
I admire your ‘head in the sand’ appreciation of the insanity of egging on the morons who think we stand more than a cat in hell’s chance of stopping Russia in its pursuit of its own security. Do you not understand that the Russian’s ‘dead hand’ will ensure that a western Pyric victory over Russia will last less than a day?
I get the impression that Putin gives Trump the same message every time they talk, the same one he has given steadfastly over the last four years or longer.
Trump seems to have the inability to actually listen to and comprehend what he is being told, and on occasions to make up conversations which are not recalled by the other party (the recent Modi conversation over oil is a case in point).
After Alaska, Trump stop talking about ceasefires. I thought that maybe Putin had got through to him, that he wasn’t going to be railroaded, yet again, into a ceasefire that was ignored by Zalensky at times to gain a fleeting advantage. He wants substantive agreement over peace talks before calling off offensive action.
Depite the misinformation being distributed by the Western media and agent Monro, Russia has no plans to advance beyond Ukraine, and those who say he is going to should take a reality check. By their own admission the front is moving slowly, so slowly in fact that Kiev is safe for several more years before Russia is even tempted to move on westwards towards Poland.
The pincer it closing around Pokrovsk with only 5kms between the arms before it is cut off and the garrison eliminated at the last stronghold on the Donetsk front. About 25% of the Donetsk remains to be liberated and we do not know for certain if the front will advance beyond creating a buffer zone to the four People’s Republics to prevent shelling by Zelensky.
The logic should be drill baby drill in the North Sea for energy security but that’s not green. As the oil will be burnt only once, does it really matter, surely burning our own oil is preferable?
Caveat: never take what Trump says or does at face value – it’s mostly theatrics.
However anyone who thinks yet more sanctions will bring Russia to its knees whereas the three years of other sanctions didn’t, is not living in this reality.
Russia is now trading quite nicely with the BRICS, particularly China. It doesn’t need the West. The West needs it. The EU “stopped” buying Russian gas two years ago, but Russia is still its main supplier. It still buys Russian oil albeit via third parties.
The US and Europe is doing themselves long term harm. Seizing/freezing Russian is a big alarm bell to other Countries, don’t put assets in the US and EU.
Russia will continue, irrespective of what the West does, until it gets what it wants.
‘Oil prices showed high volatility from 2022 to 2025, driven by events like the Russia-Ukraine war and geopolitical tensions. Prices surged in early 2022 but have since declined, with forecasts for 2025 and 2026 anticipating a further downward trend due to rising global inventories and increased non-OPEC supply’
Putin was warned:
‘Russia earns billions of dollars from oil sales,” said Kellog.
“What if you lower the price to $45 a barrel, which is essentially the breakeven point?”
On Jan. 22, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the war between Russia and Ukraine could be quickly ended if OPEC reduces oil prices. Shortly after his statement, Brent crude oil price started trending down.
Later, Trump urged Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to “make a deal” soon, warning that the Russian economy “is collapsing” and will “only get worse,” threatening to impose even harsher sanctions on Moscow.’
Running out of tanks is incompetent. Running out of petro-roubles begins to look like lunacy.
In case anyone doubts it, Britain is already at (so far cold) war with Russia. ‘Three men, aged 44, 45 and 48, have been arrested on suspicion of assisting Russia’s intelligence service, the Metropolitan police said. The men were arrested by detectives from counter-terrorism policing at addresses in west and central London on Thursday and were in police custody, the force added. They were detained under section 3 of the National Security Act. Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of counter-terrorism policing London, said: “We’re seeing an increasing number of who we would describe as ‘proxies’ being recruited by foreign intelligence services, and these arrests are directly related to our ongoing efforts to disrupt this type of activity. ‘Anyone who might be contacted by and tempted into carrying out criminal activity on behalf of a foreign state here in the UK should think again. ‘This kind of activity will be investigated and anyone found to be involved can expect to be prosecuted and there are potentially very serious consequences for those who are convicted.’ 23 Oct 2025 We all have an interest in a renewal of ‘The Long Peace 1945-2014’. We achieved that through a credible and verifiable conventional deterrent. We… Read more »
‘Ukraine officially said on Tuesday that it used Storm Shadow missiles to strike a production facility in Russia, adding the Western-made advanced munition to its arsenal against the Kremlin’s key war industries.
The Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces wrote on Telegram that it had conducted a “massive combined missile and air strike” on the Bryansk Chemical Plant in southern Russia, a facility that manufactures gunpowder, explosives, and rocket fuel components.’
23 Oct 2025
Russia is the most severely sanctioned country in the world and yet their economy is still doing well.
These new sanctions will make little difference.
The majority of the world’s population are in countries that support Russia.
The West and particularly Europe are shooting themselves in the foot by ignoring cheap Russian energy.
Putin has been consistent with their goals regarding negotiations.
NATO are desperate for a ceasefire on the current line of contact for a reason.
The current line of contact is the last major defensive line Ukraine has until Russia reaches the natural barrier of the Dnieper River.
Russia will negotiate when they soon “liberate” Pokrovsk, Lyman, Siversk, Kostiantynovka, Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Lyman etc. and free the Donbass from tyranny.
‘Putin regards the Soviet Union as a political and spatial continuation of the ‘historical Russia’ of the nationalist imagination, which included the entirety of what he has termed the ‘Russian World’ and which then tragically splintered into a multitude of independent states. Putin might well be seeing himself as a ‘gatherer of historic Russian lands’, but based on his writings and statements, it is hard to deduce exactly how far his territorial ambitions extend. Incidents such as Putin’s explicit denial of neighbouring Kazakhstan’s historical statehood in August 2014, barely half a year after the annexation of Crimea, serve as reminders that this question is not only relevant with regard to Ukraine but could have significant ramifications for Russia’s future relations with all other states in the post-Soviet space as well.’ https://ppr.lse.ac.uk/articles/10.31389/lseppr.86 The author is hinting at the blindingly obvious. Putin will not stop (until he is stopped) from recapturing all Russian speaking countries including Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltic States, quite possibly even parts of Poland. Ukraine has stopped him, for the time being. The Kremlin is desperate. The 2025 offensive has been another dismal failure. President Xi is now their only hope….and he has a lot of things that he… Read more »
Trump is totally out of his depth. In Anchorage, he understood that a “cease-fire” is as unacceptable to Russia as it was in 2015 (Minsk) and 2022 (Istanbul). In both cases the ceasefire was used by the NATO warmongers to further their crusade against Russia by re-arming, retraining the Ukrainian army, all the better to continue their genocide of the Russian speakers in the Donbass. We THOUGHT trump finally understands the root causes of the war, and agreed at Anchorage to go forward to eliminate these root causes (Kiev Neo-Nazis, NATO missile sites all along Russia’s doorstep with NATO membership), and seek a comprehensive European Security Treaty, based on the two documents proposed by the Russians in 2021, months before the “unprovoked attack”, and rejected by the western fanatics who were still convinced (like Napoleon, like the Wehrmacht) that, third time lucky, they could “inflict a strategic defeat on Russia“. But Trump, whatever his talent for upending the woke Leftists at home, seems incapable of thinking things through when it comes to a Russia determined to protect its security interests, after bending over backwards in January 2022 to negotiate with the West, only to be met with intransigence. Trump is… Read more »
Why is the Ukraine conflict existential for Russia?
It is existential for demographic reasons.
Russia’s birthrate has been in free fall for a long time now.
‘And, if you believe the forecasts and the estimates are based on actual work, the real work of people who understand this, who have devoted their whole lives to this, in 15 years, there may be 22 million fewer Russians. I ask you to think about this figure: a seventh of the country’s population. If the current trend continues, the nation’s survival will be in jeopardy’
Putin 2000
Putin’s solution is to attempt the recapture of all Russian speaking countries. He already has Belarus and 18% of Ukraine. If he is not stopped, he will move on to Moldova, the Baltic States and part of Poland.
Ukraine has stopped him.
His only way forward is to appease China but China’s support comes with strings attached.
Serfdom beckons…
The West needs to get a great deal tougher. This is the kind of thing that our enemies are up to:
‘What is not generally known is that China, during the past 40 years, has created a vice-like grip on the mining, refining and production of global metals.’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-23/australia-us-join-china-in-race-to-bottom-on-rare-earth-prices/105921278
Stealing a country’s assets is a slippery slope for the West as who will trust them to hold them in the future.
What cease fire in Gaza?
” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said…”
Every time I read the name of Dmitry Medvedev, or see news videos of him speaking, I remember this:
“President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is a descendant of the regicide Mikhail Medvedev, Yurovsky’s deputy and organizer of the execution of the Romanov family.”
He is a good example of how NO ONE can EVER be blamed for the crimes of their ancestors, no matter how heinous.
Ethnic Africans should remember this fact, instead of demanding bogus “reparations” from the West. Their claims have NO VALIDITY.