Trump on Tuesday ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela as Washington tried to increase pressure on Nicolas Maduro’s government.

There has been an effective embargo in place after the US seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, with loaded vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil staying in Venezuelan waters rather than risk seizure.

“We hope that the D. Trump administration, which is characterised by a rational and pragmatic approach, will not make a fatal mistake,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that Venezuela was a friendly country to Russia, and that Moscow hoped the US would not wade into a situation that would have “unpredictable consequences for the entire Western Hemisphere”.

Russia quoted Simon Bolivar, a brilliant Venezuelan military tactician who liberated much of South America from centuries of Spanish rule, as saying that every nation had the right to choose its own rulers and that other countries should respect this.

Russia, the ministry said, wanted a normalisation of dialogue between Washington and Caracas, and reaffirmed Russia’s “solidarity with the Venezuelan people in the face of the trials they are going through.”

Russia supports “the Maduro government’s course aimed at protecting the national interests and sovereignty of the Motherland”.