Kathrine Frich
He argued, those methods have backfired on the countries using them.
When countries clash at the bargaining table, the real leverage rarely comes from polite diplomacy.
For years, major powers have leaned on tough tactics to force their rivals into a corner.
Now, a fiery warning suggests three specific methods have lost their bite completely.
Three failed tactics
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called out the playbook that Western leaders use to bend Moscow to their will.
Writing in the newspaper Kommersant, in remarks compiled by the Russian state news agency TASS, he singled out three specific tools used by foreign capitals.
According to Lavrov, “Policies of pressure, blackmail, and diktat are doomed to fail and will be met with in-kind and asymmetric responses.”
Instead of forcing a surrender, he argued, those methods have backfired on the countries using them. Before the rift, the European Union made up as much as 40 percent of Russian foreign trade.
As TASS reported, Lavrov said Brussels broke long-term deals just to punish Moscow, yet Europe suffered trillions in losses while driving up inflation in the United States.
Even with those trade barriers in place, huge sums of money kept moving. Lavrov wrote in Kommersant that “Since 2022, we have supplied Europe with energy resources worth $320 billion.”
Clashes at sea
Out on the water, the standoff is turning even more confrontational. In his Kommersant article, Lavrov claimed the European Union is turning into a military bloc that is “clearly affected by delusions of grandeur” as it boards foreign tankers.
He accused Brussels of inventing price caps and the legal idea of a shadow fleet simply to seize ships and steal cargo.
From the English Channel to the Baltic Sea, he stressed, NATO and European capitals have no right to dictate maritime rules.
Meanwhile, he pointed to a brighter spot with Washington, noting in quotes shared by TASS that a US-Russia pact pausing diesel export curbs immediately drove fuel prices down.
Still, Lavrov leveled sharp accusations at London and Kyiv over physical strikes on fuel routes.
According to TASS, he claimed without offering proof that handlers in London directed the Nord Stream pipeline blasts, and said Ukraine ignored pleas from US President Donald Trump to stop attacking energy infrastructure, including a pipeline partly owned by American firms.
To get around Western finance and southern shipping lanes, Moscow is now building independent payment systems with BRICS nations and expanding Arctic sea trade, which Lavrov expects to hit a record 40 million tons in 2026.
