Four Republican and three Democratic members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee have urged President Donald Trump to “immediately reverse course” on his diesel supply deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing it contravenes the law banning Russian energy imports. It is the most direct Republican criticism of a Trump foreign policy decision in his current term.
“The United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians,” said a statement released on Sunday by Republicans Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis and John Curtis and Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Ron Wyden and Richard Blumenthal. “Congress explicitly banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to prevent American dollars from financing Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine,” they added. Shaheen, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said the law requires consultation with Congress and a formal review process, and that the administration “appears to have bypassed both”.
Tillis said the deal may be illegal. Murkowski urged Trump to use the law to increase sanctions and tariffs on Russia “instead of allowing Russia to export diesel, rake in revenues, and continue its catastrophic war in Ukraine”. Senator John Barrasso, the number two in the Republican majority, defended the decision, saying the president “has to make tough decisions”.
Trump announced on Friday that Russia would supply some 4.8 million tonnes of diesel to US and global markets, and the Treasury issued a licence temporarily suspending sanctions on Russian diesel until April 2027. The deal comes weeks after Trump himself signed a law tightening sanctions on Russia’s energy and financial sectors. On Sunday, following the criticism, the president announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure.
Diesel prices, near record highs because of the war with Iran, are a central issue in the November 3 midterm elections, in which Republicans trail in the polls. According to a Financial Times poll, only a quarter of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the economy. At a rally in Tennessee on Saturday, the president blamed the rise in diesel prices on Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.