Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to release 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately “to the American and global marketplace” along with follow-up shipments, according to President Donald Trump on Friday.
This is especially ironic given US sanctions and tariffs on India for importing Russian oil in 2025.
Washington raised tariffs on Indian goods to 50 per cent of Russian crude purchases, which New Delhi called a “necessity compelled by global market situation.”
The move appears to be driven by the approaching midterm elections, as the US took this step to reduce domestic diesel prices.
US prices fell 0.5 per cent after the announcement; easing Russian sanctions would not impact Washington’s fuel prices.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called this an investment in a war that must be ended in his online post.
“It plays into Russia’s hands, allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world,” the Ukrainian President added.
Representative Don Beyer, the senior House Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee, described it as infuriating.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that the administration is working within legal authority and political mandate.
“Look, President Trump, they came into office with a mandate to work for the American people, and this is good for the American people,” he added.
The resistance from Washington is bipartisan, with four Republicans and three Democrats claiming it’s illegal because Congress banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to stop US dollars from financing the war.
“The US should not import oil from Russia until it ends aggression against Ukraine and ceases threats against our NATO allies,” read a joint bipartisan statement.
Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania announced plans to introduce a bipartisan bill to stop Trump from lifting the current sanctions on Russian oil.
Washington has imposed tariffs on Indian goods over Russian crude, citing the same reasons New Delhi gave for importing from Moscow which is domestic price reliance and energy security.
Studying the move, experts say Washington could sidestep its own sanctions law by exempting its diesel imports.
The Week puts the first tranches at roughly 72,000 to 124,000 barrels a day, against global diesel demand of about 30 million.
IG Group’s Chris Beauchamp told Al Jazeera it was a short-term fix, “another classic Trump deal.”
Michael Lynch from the Energy Policy Research Foundation, a non-partisan research institution, said that buying diesel from Russia is “kind of shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.”
