Donald Trump has paused sanctions targeting Russia, just one week after reaching an agreement with Vladimir Putin to secure more than 300,000 tons of Russian diesel fuel for the United States ahead of the midterm elections.
In a message to Congress, the president said the suspension served the national interest. The decision effectively reverses legislation he signed only last month and that lawmakers named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham.
Trump issued the executive order late Friday, just 48 hours before the deadline established by the law for putting the sanctions package into effect.
The president has defended the diesel agreement as an effort to reduce energy costs worldwide, even though buying fuel from Russia could undermine Ukraine as it continues its war against Moscow.
Rising gas prices, combined with broad public dissatisfaction over the war in Iran, have pushed Trump’s approval rating close to historic lows. The political pressure comes as Republicans fight to retain control of both chambers of Congress.
The Graham Act was designed to accelerate efforts to cut off the financial flows supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The legislation aimed to deprive Putin’s government of the money and other resources Moscow requires to sustain its invasion, which began more than four years ago.
The measure, co-authored by Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, called for sanctions on Russian officials and banks, as well as on a shadow tanker fleet used to transport Russian energy.
Donald Trump paused Russia-related sanctions in an executive order issued Friday
The decision followed Trump’s agreement with Vladimir Putin to obtain more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel before the midterm elections
The law also instructed Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on the five largest buyers of Russian oil or natural gas. Countries importing less than 15 percent of Russia’s natural gas exports could avoid the penalties if they had taken substantial steps to reduce their reliance on Russian supplies.
Blumenthal said Trump was abandoning “the majority of Americans, their representatives in both houses of Congress, and our European allies.”
“These waivers have nothing to do with our national security, and everything to do with sucking up to Vladimir Putin,” Blumenthal said.
Virginia Democratic Representative Don Beyer said on social media that he and other lawmakers had warned Trump that he could suspend the sanctions shortly after news of the decision emerged.
Beyer, a longtime congressman who opposed the bill during debate, urged lawmakers to “fix this flawed law to stop Trump from capitulating to Putin and ensure that it truly supports Ukraine.”
Graham, a close friend and ally of Trump, had returned from Ukraine shortly before his unexpected death in July.
Following his death, lawmakers from both parties backed the legislation, which Trump subsequently signed. On Friday, however, the president reversed course.
Graham had repeatedly supported tougher US sanctions on Russia, viewing them as a means of pressuring Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.
Trump told Congress that suspending the sanctions was in the national interest, reversing legislation he had signed the previous month
The legislation honored the late Senator Lindsey Graham (pictured right), a prominent advocate of continued US support for Ukraine
ALSO READ: Countryfile Farmer Who Died at 35 Admitted £1m Business Debt
His sister Darline faces a reelection battle for his seat in just over two weeks, with the sanctions having become a campaign centerpiece for her as she runs to retain Lindsey’s old seat permanently.
Darline Graham said in a statement after Trump signed the bill, ‘I wish Lindsey were here to celebrate this historic day.’
In a debate earlier this week with Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, Graham – who has Trump´s endorsement and is expected to campaign with him in South Carolina next week – said she had been ‘so proud’ to help get the measure passed.
She acknowledged, however, that it was the President’s purview as to how he implemented it.
‘It gives the president tools that he can use if he so chooses, to end the war through economic sanctions,’ Graham said Sunday during a debate in Columbia.
‘So that’s up to him as to whether or not he wants to use it, or whether he wants to use something else, but I think the purpose of it is to bring down the gas prices and ultimately end the war. And when the war ends, gas prices will fall.’
The decision was posted on the White House website late in the evening, and the notification noted that the report explaining the decision had been submitted to Congress.
Still, it comes as Trump has increasingly lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, blaming him for failing to make a deal with Putin to end the fighting.
Join the discussion
Is Trump’s decision to favor a Russian fuel deal over sanctions a betrayal of Ukraine or smart leadership in tough times?
Graham’s sister Darline (pictured) faces a reelection battle for his seat in just over two weeks, with the sanctions having become a campaign centerpiece for her as she runs to retain Lindsey’s old seat permanently
The Trump administration, meanwhile, had remained mostly quiet since the passage of the bill with large majorities in the House and Senate following Graham’s sudden death – with lawmakers urged ahead by Zelensky.
Under last week’s agreement, Trump said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons ‘immediately thereafter.’
Trump’s striking a diesel deal with Putin has been pilloried by Republicans and Democrats alike who say it will help Russia execute its war against Ukraine – without making a difference to global fuel prices.
Zelensky trashed the deal as a ‘gift to Putin’, and Kyiv was caught off guard by the announcement, an official told Axios.
‘Gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilized world. Russia will “repay”‘ the diesel with further terror and treachery,’ Zelensky said. ‘Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged.’
The initial 300,000 tons works out at roughly 2.2 million barrels, less than two hours’ worth of global diesel demand, according to calculations based on International Energy Agency figures.
Even the 500,000 tons promised for November amounts to around 125,000 barrels a day, about an eighth of the roughly 1 million barrels of diesel Russia was exporting daily before Ukraine’s refinery blitz.
Trump claimed that the agreement, in combination with America’s ‘total control of the Strait of Hormuz,’ would bring down diesel prices for the world.
The President has blamed the diesel spike on Ukraine, rather than his own war with Iran, telling reporters at his golf resort in Ireland on September 13: ‘This isn’t done by the Middle East, this is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.’
