US President Donald Trump has suspended a significant part of a plan to impose new sanctions on Russia. According to the news agency Reuters, this decision comes at a time when Trump has adopted a relatively softer stance toward Russia and has also openly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Under the proposed sanctions plan, the United States would have been authorized to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on all goods imported from Russia, including crude oil and gas. A key proponent of this plan was the late US Senator Lindsey Graham.
The proposed legislation would have also allowed the US to take action against countries that—within 30 days of the law’s enactment—knowingly purchased oil or gas from Russia, or were among the top five nations assisting Russia in evading sanctions.
This decision to suspend the sanctions on Russia follows an announcement by Trump, made a week earlier, that the US had agreed to purchase diesel from Russia in an effort to lower global energy prices.
In mid-September, Trump had signed a bill—referred to as the “Lindsey Graham Act”—aimed at imposing sanctions on Russia and Iran.
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