Trump Freezes Parts of New Russia Sanctions

In the order issued Friday night, Trump said it was in the US “national interests” to withhold some of the measures. The law, signed in September and due to take effect on 18 October, was meant to hit Russian revenue and raise the economic cost of the war.

This was not a token package. The law, named for the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, gave Trump authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the top five purchasers of Russian oil and gas, most notably China and India. It also included sanctions targeting Vladimir Putin, senior Russian officials, banks, other financial institutions and Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers used to get around existing restrictions.

The immediate political problem for Trump is that the waiver lands just after he said the US would import Russian diesel to try to bring down energy prices before the November midterm elections. That plan already shocked lawmakers and rattled allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a gift to Putin, and it is hard to miss the contradiction: Washington cannot convincingly advertise pressure on the Kremlin while reopening a market for Russian fuel.

Congress was not subtle about its warning. A bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers wrote to Trump urging “full and faithful implementation” of the law and said it would be “decisive in forcing Putin to take peace talks seriously.” NBC News also reported that Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said there was “a legitimate case” that the president was not following the law.

That leaves Trump in a familiar position: claiming broad national-interest authority while undercutting one of the sharper tools available short of direct military escalation. For Ukraine, and for lawmakers who pushed this bill through, the argument is not abstract. A sanctions law designed to squeeze Moscow looks weaker the moment the White House starts making exceptions before it has even properly begun.