US president’s executive order comes two days before sanctions deadline and a week after diesel deal with Putin.

Save

Share

US President Donald Trump has put on hold a sweeping package of sanctions on Russia that he signed into law last month, telling Congress the pause is in the national interest.

Trump signed an executive order on Friday, two days before a deadline in the law that would put the sanctions into effect.

The law – named after Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator who died unexpectedly in July after returning from Ukraine – had passed in the House of Representatives and the Senate by large margins. The bipartisan legislation was drafted by Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal.

It sought to starve Moscow of money for the war by sanctioning Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers carrying its energy.

It also directed Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on the five biggest importers of Russian oil or gas, with an exception for countries that import less than 15 percent of Russia’s natural gas exports and are taking steps to cut them.

Kirill Dmitriev, special envoy for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on social media that Trump’s move was “an important and truly historic moment”.

“The US-Russia economic dialogue and peacemaking efforts will continue,” he added.

The decision to suspend the sanctions comes a week after Trump said the US had signed a deal to buy diesel from Russia to try to lower global fuel prices.

Both Republicans and Democrats, criticising the deal, said it would help Russia’s war effort without affecting fuel prices.

Democratic Representative Don Beyer said he and others had “warned” that Trump might do this, in reference to Trump’s deal with Moscow.

Beyer called on Congress to “fix this flawed law to stop Trump from capitulating to Putin and ensure that it truly supports Ukraine”.

Trump has also increasingly criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lately for failing to reach a deal with Russia.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Oleksandr Merezhko, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Inter-parliamentary Ties Committee in the Ukrainian parliament, linked Trump’s latest moves that put Ukraine at a disadvantage to US midterm elections and predicted the improvement after the vote.

“President Trump is a difficult partner, but we are dependant on the United States and we need to have constructive, respectful relations, even with Trump no matter how difficult it might be,” he said.

“I believe that after the midterm elections situation will be better, the emotions will subside and we will be able to return to constructive dialogue with President Trump,” Merezhko added.

As Republicans try to keep control of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections, an AP-NORC poll released on October 1 found Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Iran war and blame him for higher prices among several other domestic policy issues.