Threats to India, China won't work: Russia's strong message to US

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticised US rhetoric on tariffs and said that such pressure will not succeed and "ancient civilisations" such as India and China will not yield to ultimatums. Speaking at 'The Great Game' programme of Russia's main Channel 1 TV, Lavrov explained how the "demands" that the US has put forth for countries like China and India to stop purchasing Russian energy are pushing the countries further away. "It forces them to look for new energy markets, new resources, and forces them to pay more", the Russian minister said. The Russian foreign minister's comments come in the drop of severe criticism by the Donald Trump administration of India for buying oil from Moscow amid the Ukraine-Russia war. “Besides the fact that this undermines the economic well-being of those countries, it at least creates very serious difficulties for them, forcing them to seek new markets, new sources of energy supplies, (and) forcing them to pay higher prices. But beyond this, and perhaps even more importantly than this, there is a moral and political opposition to this approach,” he added.

US Can't Just Stop India & China Buying Russian Oil - Lavrov

The Russian FM said India & China are powers & ancient civilisations, Washington can't just slap tariffs on everything it doesn't like about them.

energy. pic.twitter.com/sAN2YpIMR3

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) September 18, 2025

Amid threats of new sanctions on Russia, Lavrov said he does not see any problem. "Frankly speaking, I don't see any problem with the new sanctions imposed on Russia. An enormous amount of sanctions, unprecedented for that period, were imposed during President Donald Trump's first term," he said.