Russia’s top diplomat blasted the Trump administration, griping that Washington talked about cooperation during the Alaska summit but instead has waged an economic war against Moscow. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov grumbled that the US continues to pursue an “anti-Russian policy” despite public statements signaling a potential thaw in relations after President Trump welcomed President Vladimir Putin to Anchorage in August. Lavrov pointed to fresh sanctions and Western efforts to crack down on Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers.

“Despite declarations about moving toward full-scale, broad cooperation, everything looks the opposite in practice,” he whined. “New sanctions are being introduced, and a war against shadow fleet tankers is being waged on the high seas.”

Most of the sanctions the US has placed on Russia are related to Putin’s continued war on Ukraine, which means Moscow has the power to end the sanctions by ending their war, US officials have said.

Lavrov signaled that Russia-US relations have gone south since the Alaska summit, as Putin continues to demand condition-free control of Ukraine’s Donbas region to end the war.

“We were told that the Ukrainian issue must be resolved. In Anchorage, we accepted the United States’ proposal. To put it straightforwardly, they proposed, and we agreed – the problem should be solved,” Lavrov said. “President Putin has repeatedly stated that for Russia, this is what matters.”

The remarks came on Monday, the same day the US boarded an oil tanker known to carry sanctioned Russian and Venezuelan oil for previously violating President Trump’s “quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” according to the Department of War.

“The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. It ran, and we followed,” the Pentagon said in a post to X. “The Department of War tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean.”

It was the second ship the US has boarded this year, suspected of being part of Moscow’s shadow fleet. In January, the US military seized the Russian-flagged Marinera — formerly known as the Bella 1 under a Panamania flag — for breaking the embargo and allegedly carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

Last week, President Trump made a deal with India to reduce its tariffs if New Delhi stops buying Russian oil. The US also late last year sanctioned two of Russia’s major oil companies — Rosneft and Lukoil — which targeted Moscow’s major source of income for continuing its four-year war.

“In the economic sphere, the United States has effectively declared a goal of economic domination,” he said. “…The Americans aim to control all energy supply routes for all leading countries across continents, including in Europe, where they monitor the Nord Stream pipelines, the Ukrainian gas transport system, and the TurkStream pipeline.”

But the US under Trump has also practiced restraint, which Lavrov failed to highlight. For example, a bill that would sanction any entity that purchases Russian oil has lagged for months in Congress — even after the White House said the president supports the bill.

Lavrov also complained that Trump, in April 2025, re-upped some Biden-era sanctions, “the core of which is sanctions against Russia, including the freezing of our gold and foreign currency reserves.”

“It explicitly states that this is ‘in connection with Russia’s hostile foreign policy behavior’,” the minister complained.