MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. The US administration is extending existing anti-Russian sanctions and adopting new ones, which is hardly coherent with sentiments conveyed by the American delegation at the negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Channel One’s Big Game (Bolshaya Igra) show.
"Take Congress, the Administration, the Treasury - they have unconditionally extended every last sanction imposed under the previous administration, what you might call Biden’s Congress," he said, adding that "all of that sits rather awkwardly alongside the constructive tone of the negotiations." "But that’s life - and, as always, life is multifaceted," the minister noted.
Lavrov recalled US President Donald Trump’s words that the war in Ukraine is "Joe Biden’s war," which would never have happened if Trump had been president. "We have to be realistic about what’s actually happening on the ground. On top of the Biden-era sanctions, we are now seeing new ones coming out of the current administration - against Lukoil and Rosneft, for example. And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is openly talking about doubling down on sanctions and bringing global energy markets under US control," he said.