Russian ministers sound alarm in unison, threatens to unleash Russia’s full power

Today, there are important updates from the Russian Federation.

Here, Russian officials are sounding the alarm of betrayal, as they begin to realize that the US is not as much on their side as they had hoped. With head ministers now claiming the US has escalated beyond repair, Russia is preparing to raise the war to a new level.

Recently, the United States has intercepted the Russian-linked shadow fleet oil tanker Aquila 2 in the Indian Ocean. US military forces tracked the tanker from the Caribbean, where it had attempted to evade Washington’s sanctions and quarantine on sanctioned vessels.

The boarding took place in the Indian Ocean, and reports suggest that the ship was carrying illicit Russian and Venezuelan oil shipments in violation of US sanctions. However, this was not the first time this had happened, and Russians were beginning to doubt who was on whose side.

Notably, US forces have boarded and seized multiple Russian shadow fleet tankers in recent weeks, enforcing international sanctions, with 2 such vessels reported to have been taken into US custody. Most previous US-linked seizures of tankers carrying Russian oil were conducted through court-ordered confiscations, enforcement by partner states, or restrictions tied to insurance and financial compliance. However, the Aquila 2 case involved a direct boarding at sea and physical control by US forces, marking a significant escalation and a breaking point for Moscow.

Following the tanker seizure, Sergey Lavrov accused the United States of betraying earlier understandings reached in Anchorage and failing to follow through on proposals related to Ukraine. He claimed that recent seizures of Russian-linked vessels violate international maritime law, particularly the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea’s provisions on freedom of navigation and exclusive flag-state jurisdiction.

Lavrov also argued that Washington is creating artificial barriers to Russian trade, pointing specifically to pressure on countries such as India to reduce purchases of Russian energy. In addition, Russian officials suggested that the current US administration is not only continuing the sanctions policy but also blatantly pursuing their own interests and disregarding established agreements. Simultaneously, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov echoed these points, stating that meaningful progress would depend on honoring prior understandings reached in Alaska.

Specifically, the highest Russian officials jointly expressed the belief that they had reached an agreement in Alaska, centered around immediate sanctions relief and the normalization of trade relations with the United States as preconditions for continuing substantive talks regarding a peace deal in Ukraine. Moscow signaled that progress on the negotiations would depend entirely on immediate economic concessions, including the rollback of financial and energy restrictions imposed since the start of the war. However, any deal was either imagined or not set in stone to begin with, as Washington and its partners have maintained and even expanded sanctions enforcement, particularly targeting oil exports and the maritime trade.

In practical terms, Moscow’s core demands are being mostly ignored while pressure from the US has silently intensified. This suggests that Russia’s negotiation strategy is failing to deliver results; instead of easing tensions, the United States appears to be increasing pressure on Russia by intensifying actions against its shadow fleet.

This perceived backstabbing led the Russian officials to accuse the United States of profiting from enabling Ukraine to strike Russia’s shadow fleet tankers around the world. Notably, Ukraine has targeted Russia's shadow fleet and related energy infrastructure primarily through drone strikes, expanding from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and even the distant Caspian Sea, with Russians accusing the US of allowing and even facilitating these strikes.

In response, the Kremlin has issued blunt warnings that if Western pressure and sanctions are not lifted, Russia could expand the war and take over all of Ukraine if it really wanted. Russian leaders present this as a sign that they have been holding back so far, but warn that continued pressure could lead them to stop playing nice and step up their military campaign, showing how far their threats are disconnected from the realities on the ground.

Overall, relations between Russia and the United States will deteriorate further rather than stabilize. Sanctions enforcement will expand, as it benefits Washington to continue targeting and boarding vessels linked to Russia’s shadow fleet to maintain pressure. Russia doesn’t have sufficient naval forces to fight back, which limits its countermeasures to rhetoric and empty threats. As the economic and maritime pressure continues, chances for meaningful talks or compromise will shrink, and the relations between the US and Russia will worsen.