America just waived its own sanctions on Russia and Ukraine's allies are furious
1 hour ago · 17 October 2026Share
A copyright-free image of U.S. president Donald Trump signing an executive order in the Oval Office in 4K resolution. File photo. The White House · Public domain
Trump just waived almost every sanction he signed into law himself.
Here's the timeline. A month ago, Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act. Congress backed it hard — 86 to 11 in the Senate, 262 to 159 in the House. The law is named after the South Carolina senator, who died three months ago.
So what did the law actually do? It put sanctions on Russian entities. And it put a 500 percent tariff on Russian energy coming into America. Both were due to hit two days from now.
Then a day ago, Trump signed an executive order. And it waives almost all of it.
He used Section 115 — a clause written into the law itself, letting the president waive enforcement if he tells Congress it serves the national interest. He's done exactly that.
The order still technically raises the duty on Russian goods by 500 percent. It still technically sets a 100 percent duty on the five biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas if they keep buying after tomorrow. But both of those get waived in the same order. Cancelled before they ever bite.
And there's no end date. The waiver stays in place until the president or the Secretary of State says otherwise.
So who are the five biggest buyers? Nobody's said yet. That job goes to the US Trade Representative, who'll be watching purchases and sanctions evasion going forward. Business Standard reports that waiving the law dodges a clash with China, India and Turkey — the outlet's named top buyers of Russian energy.
Now here's why the timing matters.
The rest of this story is for members.
Trump Oval Office (2017), working office of the President of the United States. File photo. White House · Public domain
A week before this waiver, Trump announced a deal with Vladimir Putin. Russia supplies diesel to America and the world. More than 300,000 tons straight away. 500,000 tons in November. A million tons after that. Then another 3 million tons within a short period. The Treasury Department's General License No. 135 is what actually lifted the sanctions to make that possible.
So think about what just happened. A law built to squeeze Russia's war money got waived in the same breath as a deal that hands Russia a brand new buyer for its fuel.
And a dozen senators saw this coming. Republicans Mitch McConnell, Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, Alan Armstrong and Lisa Murkowski, plus six Democrats, wrote to Trump four days ago. They told him to cancel the diesel deal and enforce the sanctions instead.
Their letter says the deal hands a gift to Russia and betrays America's allies, and should be cancelled.
Their argument is simple. Russian diesel on world markets won't bring down US fuel prices much. But it will hand Moscow money for its war in Ukraine. And it'll deepen Russia's ties with China, Iran and North Korea. Trump's office hasn't answered that argument. The executive order doesn't address it either.
India is one of the world's biggest buyers of Russian oil. And according to Al-Monitor, India has raised its own concerns about the sanctions law. Trump has been warming towards Russia for months, too, and he's criticised Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even suggesting Ukraine needs a new leader.
One outlet, TFTC, reports that mandatory sanctions on three Russian banks — Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank — were due tomorrow, and that the Act also extends Iran sanctions out to 2031. Neither claim shows up anywhere else, so they're not reported here as confirmed fact. And nobody, including TFTC, can say whether the waiver even covers mandatory sanctions on Russian banks at all.
But here's what we do know for certain. Congress passed this law overwhelmingly. Trump signed it himself. And two days before it would have bitten, he waived it in full, using the exact clause the law gave him to do it — while Russian diesel starts landing in world markets under American permission.
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