Stunned silence from Moscow after Trump turns on Russia

There was a grim silence in Moscow the day after US President Donald Trump criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and imposed punitive sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies.

Just days after a “very productive” phone call between the two leaders, in which they agreed to meet in Hungary and then the US president sided with Russia on a possible peace deal with Ukraine, Trump changed his tune on Wednesday, voicing his frustration with Moscow.

“We canceled the meeting with President Putin. It just didn’t feel right to meet. It didn’t feel like we were going to get where we needed to get to. So I canceled it, but we will do it in the future,” Trump said on Wednesday.

“Every time I talk to Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” Trump added, next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, with whom he discussed peace proposals for Ukraine.

“I felt it was time, we’ve waited a long time,” Trump said when asked why he chose to impose a package of sanctions on oil giants Lukoil and Rosneft at that moment.

Trump’s comments about Putin were not particularly widely reported in pro-Kremlin state media outlets. TASS, Radio Sputnik And RIA NovostiThursday’s news made little mention of the criticism or the canceled meeting.

Just the day before, Russian state media (essentially the mouthpiece of the Kremlin) had sounded optimistic that the talks between Putin and Trump, planned to be held in Hungary but postponed by the White House, would continue.

The Kremlin and various senior Russian officials blamed “fake news” for undermining the Trump-Putin summit, but the White House appeared to suspend talks after Russia reiterated its position that it does not support an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has yet to publicly comment on the canceled meeting, sanctions, or the possibility of future Trump-Putin talks. CNBC has contacted the Kremlin for comment.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that the ministry was ready to “maintain contacts” with the U.S. State Department but said its goals in Ukraine “have not changed,” in comments translated by NBC News. He added that recent sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil were counterproductive to finding a peaceful solution to the war.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a well-known anti-Western hawk, criticized Trump’s cancellation of the Budapest summit, commenting on Telegram on Thursday: “The USA is our enemy and their loud-mouthed ‘peacekeeper’ [Trump] “It is now completely on the path to war against Russia.”

“Now Trump has fully adapted to a crazy Europe,” Medvedev said in a comment translated by Google.

The sanctions imposed on Lukoil and Rosneft and dozens of subsidiaries aim to pressure Moscow, which has financed its three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine with revenues from global oil sales, for a ceasefire. US Treasury said.

Department of Treasury He said new sanctions would hurt the Kremlin’s ability to generate revenue to finance its war against Ukraine.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said his department “stands ready to take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s efforts to end yet another war.” “We encourage our allies to join us and comply with these sanctions.”

The EU introduced new sanctions against Russia on Thursday. The package of measures approved by member states on Wednesday evening also includes a ban on the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice president of the European Commission, told CNBC on Thursday that the new sanctions “are a good power signal that the United States is imposing sanctions on major Russian oil companies. This really deprives Russia of the means to finance this war. It is necessary to end this war.”