US President Donald Trump is still pressing on NATO countries to stop buying oil from Russia. He added a gas purchase lock to the demands.
Trump wants to cut Russia from income
The main source of Russia’s budget revenues is the sale of gas and oil. Now Donald Trump wants to cut off Moscow from these income. He presses the US allies to stop buying raw materials from Moscow.
They don’t do what belongs to them. NATO must take a grip, Europe has to take a grip. Europeans are my friends, but they buy oil from Russia
– Trump said during a press conference.
He emphasized that he did not accept the fact that European countries are still purchasing key energy raw materials from Moscow.
So you can’t expect that we will be the only ones who, you know, do it all. But Europe buys oil from Russia. I don’t want them to buy oil, and the sanctions they apply are not harsh enough. I am ready to impose sanctions, but they will have to tighten their sanctions, in proportion to what I do
he added.
Earlier, Trump demanded a complete departure from Russian oil from allies. In return, he promised that the United States would impose further restrictions on Moscow. He claims that NATO has already announced that it would meet his expectations. This time the former president clarified that it is also about cutting Europe from Russian gas.
Economic data show that in the first quarter of 2025 imports from Russia to the EU amounted to EUR 8.74 billion, while four years earlier it reached 30.58 billion. EU countries are still buying oil, gas, steel, fertilizers or nickels from Russia, but on a much smaller scale than before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. At that time, Russia was the largest supplier of oil products to Europe (EUR 14.06 billion), and in 2025 its share fell to 1.48 billion.
The USA will gain pressure on Europe
It is hard not to notice that Trump’s pressure also has an economic dimension. Russia is doing without Europeans anyway, because it sells its raw materials, including China and Indy, simply celebrates Western sanctions. However, Americans care about something else – that Europe depends on the supply of gas and oil from the United States. In practice, it is about opening the market for American oil and shale gas.
