Medvedev, the bad cop, is saying things Putin won't or can't. That's his job, with obvious Putin's blessings.
Trump Now 'Fully On Warpath With Russia' With Oil Sanctions, Medvedev Says
by Tyler Durden
Thursday, Oct 23, 2025 - 08:20 AM
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and close Putin-ally has blasted President Donald Trump's new sanctions against Russia's oil giants as an "act of war" which puts the United States on the direct warpath with Russia.
"The US is our enemy, and their talkative 'peacemaker' has now fully embarked on the warpath with Russia," Medvedev, who serves as a top Russian national security official, said. "The decisions taken are an act of war against Russia. And now Trump has fully aligned himself with loony Europe," he emphasized in the statement.
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Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia's two biggest oil companies, were slapped with US Treasury sanctions along with dozens of their subsidiaries, resulting in global oil prices to rise by 3% on Thursday. Further repercussions have included India, the largest importer of Russian oil, but mull cutting its purchases.
Trump has frequently said the "war should have never started" and that it's Joe Biden's fault, but Medvedev took the Republican president to task on this also, per Russian state media:
He argued that Trump had likely been pressured by both domestic and international hawks into taking a hardline stance, rather than acting out of ideological conviction as was the case with his predecessor, Joe Biden. “But now it’s his conflict,” Medvedev concluded, adding that Russia must focus on achieving its objectives militarily rather than through negotiations.
"Of course they'll say he couldn't do otherwise, that he was pressured in Congress, etc.," Medvedev did concede in the statement.
Still, it remains there's no clear evidence that the Trump administration has ever brought real pressure to bear on its ally Zelensky to make key territorial concessions and to permanently reject the idea of ever joining NATO.
Instead, Trump has allowed long-range attacks inside Russia, and has even authorized intelligence help for the Ukrainians to attack energy sites deep into Russia.
With these escalations under the Trump White House, Medvedev is arguing that Trump now 'owns' the grinding conflict, also after the White House made clear the Budapest summit with Putin is not going to happen.
"I don’t want to have a wasted meeting," Trump had said earlier this week. "I don’t want to have a waste of time, so we’ll see what happens." The Kremlin had also said, "preparation is needed, serious preparation" before a meeting comes to fruition. |
