Marco Rubio puts the exemption from sanctions against Moscow into perspective

The head of American diplomacy Marco Rubio put into perspective on Saturday evening Donald Trump's decision to exempt Russia from new sanctions, ensuring that it was a 60-day pause aimed at "analyzing" their economic repercussions. This suspension of the application of measures of a recent law adopted by Congress particularly targeting the Russian energy sector was strongly denounced by Ukraine, aggravating the tensions which have accumulated between kyiv and Washington for a week.

“The president wants to use this 60-day period to, sort of, analyze the effect of both sanctions and tariffs on the global economy, and even the U.S. economy,” Mr. Rubio said before flying off for a visit to Uzbekistan and India.

Skip the ad

He highlighted the effect of recent conflicts on energy prices, including the U.S.-led war against Iran and attacks by Yemen's pro-Iranian Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia. “These conflicts around the world are starting to impact on each other and they are having repercussions not only on international oil and diesel prices” but more generally on the economy, Mr. Rubio said.

Donald Trump's decision was announced late Friday evening in a presidential executive order issued by the White House. It concerns the Graham Act, promulgated in mid-September, which constituted the first major action by Congress against Moscow since the American billionaire's return to power. Strongly denounced by kyiv, this exemption comes a few days after an agreement between Washington and Moscow to lift sanctions in order to allow the United States to import large quantities of Russian diesel.

Recent American decisions favorable to Moscow have triggered a new crisis in relations between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, the first calling for the departure of the second, while Ukraine regretted not having been warned by its ally of Russian attacks. During an online press conference, Mr. Zelensky estimated that the lifting of existing American sanctions against Moscow would “continue”. “I think this is just the beginning and this Lindsey (Graham) Act measure is not the end of the story,” Mr. Zelensky said.

The Republican leader calls on kyiv to stop its strikes against Russian refineries, carried out in retaliation for the daily bombings of the Moscow army on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine says it is ready for an energy truce provided it is respected by Moscow. Mr. Zelensky reported on Saturday new attacks against important electrical infrastructure, accusing Moscow of seeking to “cause a general electrical blackout in Ukraine” before winter.