Defiant Putin insists Trump’s sanctions on oil companies won’t affect Russia’s economy

Vladimir Putin has described Donald Trump’s sanctions against two major oil firms as an “unfriendly act”.

However, the Russian president has insisted the tightened restrictions won’t affect the nation’s economy, a claim widely contradicted by most analysts.

In a major policy shift, Mr Trump imposed sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil – Russia’s biggest oil companies – on Wednesday.

The White House said this was because of “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.

Putin has now warned the move could disrupt the global oil markets, and lead to higher prices for consumers.

A meeting between the two leaders had been proposed in Budapest, but Mr Trump said he had decided to cancel the talks because “it didn’t feel right to me”.

Speaking from the Oval Office, he told reporters: “I have good conversations. And then, they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”

Giving a speech in Moscow, Putin said “dialogue is always better than war” – but warned that Russia will never bow to pressure from abroad.

In other developments, Lithuania has claimed that two Russian military aircraft briefly entered its airspace on Thursday.

A Su-30 fighter and Il-78 refuelling tanker were in the NATO member’s territory for 18 seconds, and Spanish jets were scrambled in response to the incident.