Donald Trump has suspended sanctions on Russia, just one week after reaching an agreement with Vladimir Putin to supply the United States with more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel ahead of the midterm elections.
In a letter to Congress, the president said the decision was in the national interest. The move reverses legislation he signed only last month, which was named in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham.
Trump’s executive order was issued late Friday night, just two days before the deadline set by the law for its implementation.
Trump said the agreement to buy diesel from Russia was intended to help lower global energy prices, even though the deal could undermine Ukraine as it continues its war with Russia.
Rising gas prices and widespread opposition to the war in Iran have pushed Trump’s approval ratings close to historic lows. Political pressure is also building as Republicans seek to retain control of both chambers of Congress.
The Graham Act was designed to more rapidly restrict the financial resources helping to fund Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The legislation aimed to deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of the money Moscow needs to sustain its military campaign, which began after Russia invaded its neighbor more than four years ago.
The bill, co-authored by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, targeted Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers used to keep the country’s energy exports moving.
Donald Trump suspended sanctions against Russia in an executive order issued Friday
The decision came one week after Trump struck a deal with Vladimir Putin for more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel ahead of the midterm elections
The law also instructed Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on the five largest importers of Russian oil or natural gas. An exception applied to countries that bought less than 15 percent of Russia’s natural gas exports and had taken significant steps to reduce their reliance on those 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.
Democratic Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said on social media shortly after the sanctions were suspended that he and other lawmakers had warned Trump he could take such action.
The veteran congressman, who opposed the bill during its debate, urged Congress 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 recently returned from Ukraine when he died unexpectedly in July.
Following his death, lawmakers from both parties backed the measure, and Trump signed it into law. On Friday, however, he reversed course.
Graham had pushed for tougher US sanctions against Russia as a means of pressuring Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.
The president told Congress the decision served the national interest, reversing legislation he signed only last month
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The law was named in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham (pictured right), a prominent advocate for continued US support of Ukraine
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.
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.’