19 Feb 2026 - 09:27
The Kabul Tribune (KT) - The United States is attempting to push Russia out of global energy markets while publicly speaking about potential future cooperation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, as reported by TASS.
Lavrov noted that a couple of weeks after the Alaska summit, the administration of Donald Trump announced U.S. sanctions against major Russian energy companies Lukoil and Rosneft.
He added that Washington subsequently demanded that India stop purchasing Russian oil. According to Lavrov, developments then followed regarding Venezuela, where the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a resolution allowing the Venezuelan oil industry to resume operations while prohibiting the involvement of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.
"while the Americans sincerely told us that, once the Ukraine issue has been settled, we can begin mutually beneficial cooperation, for now, they have been trying to force us out of global energy markets,” Lavrov stressed.
