Energy Secretary Defends Waiver of New Russia Sanctions, Says It Is Not an Economic Lifeline for Moscow
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sunday defended President Donald Trump's decision to waive new sanctions and tariffs created to keep pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. He claimed this exemption is no 'economic lifeline' for Russia.
On the program 'This Week,' Wright said it is an incentive, or a 'carrot,' given to end the war. In his words, this is not an economic lifeline for Russia.
Late on Friday night, Trump waived the new sanctions in an executive order, a decision that came just two days before they were to take effect. These economic punitive measures were mandatory under a bill named after the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, which the president had signed exactly one month earlier, on Sunday.
Graham's sister, who has succeeded him in the Senate, expressed disagreement with Trump's decision. Darlene Graham said on Saturday that personally she would have decided in favor of maintaining pressure on Russia in order to end the war and lower energy prices, because she does not trust Putin and does not trust Russia either.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Trump's decision 'wrong.' In his view, it certainly only helps the Russians.
But in an interview with ABC News's Martha Raddatz, Wright said this sanctions waiver actually creates pressure on Russia. His argument is that for Russia to benefit from this step, it will have to export diesel, which means either using less diesel domestically, reducing the war effort, or the capacity to repair refineries — which is possible only through a peace agreement with Ukraine, an energy ceasefire, or some step toward peace.
Trump's executive order comes a week after he announced an agreement to eventually import several million tons of diesel in a deal with Russia. Yet a 2022 law has explicitly banned US imports of Russian energy. At the same time, he criticized Zelenskyy over Ukraine's attacks targeting Russia's oil refineries and said these attacks are raising prices.
This diesel deal, made while the average price of diesel at home was above 6 dollars per gallon, has drawn reactions from lawmakers of both parties. Zelenskyy called it a 'birthday gift' for Putin and said on the program 'This Week' last Sunday that the high price of diesel is rising because of another conflict. In his words, when everyone understands that prices are rising because of the war in the Middle East, it is easy to associate it with Ukraine by talking about prices.
Although some lawmakers have accused Trump of surrendering to Putin, Wright said the administration is still putting 'enormous pressure' on the Russian leader. He claimed that the sanctions on Russia today under the Trump administration are stronger than any sanctions that ever existed before.
Wright also said that in this war, which has lasted four and a half years, there have been about 1.5 million casualties, yet the war has not ended. In his words, President Trump will not sit idly by and say, 'We probably can never stop this.'
People in the United States have been suffering for months with high gas and diesel prices; prices began to rise after the United States became involved in a war with Iran at the end of February. Wright acknowledged that people are frustrated with the extra cost. He said people are annoyed by the high prices of gas and diesel and the government understands that, which is why work is being done along every possible path to tackle the problem. At the same time, he alleged that Democrats have for 15 years done everything possible to make energy more expensive.
The sanctions waiver, the diesel deal and the debate over prices — all together, the debate in Washington over the Trump administration's strategy in the Russia-Ukraine war has intensified further. Although Wright's defense made the administration's position clear, there is for now no sign of the criticism from Zelenskyy and from within his own party coming to a stop.
