US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on October 16 waiving new sanctions and tariffs targeting Russia under legislation he approved in September. The White House published the order before the October 18 implementation deadline. On October 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged supporters to defend the measures, the Associated Press reported.
The order identifies the legislation as the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, signed on September 18. It invokes the law’s waiver authority and says Trump submitted Congress a certification and report explaining why the exemptions serve US national interests. AP reported that the White House did not immediately publicly explain that reasoning.
The order sets out increases in duties of 500 percent on Russian goods and 100 percent on goods from certain countries buying Russian energy or facilitating sanctions evasion, then waives their application. It also waives numerous sanctions provisions. The document explicitly preserves sanctions under earlier executive orders as they stood before the Graham Act’s enactment; it does not remove every existing restriction on Russia.
According to Deutsche Welle, the law won bipartisan support in Congress and sought to restrict resources available for Russia’s war against Ukraine, including through penalties targeting officials, banks and oil tankers. The waiver follows Trump’s announcement a week earlier of an agreement to buy Russian diesel, which he said would help lower global energy prices.
AP reported that Zelenskyy called the suspension unfortunate and argued that the legislation could still help put effective pressure on Russia to end the war if implemented. He appealed for public support without directly attacking Trump. Deutsche Welle reported that Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a co-author of the legislation, criticised the waivers as a rejection of Congress and European allies.
The executive order gives no fixed expiry date for the waivers. They remain in force until the president or secretary of state, consulting the relevant economic officials as appropriate, decides further action is warranted. It also directs US trade officials to monitor Russian energy purchases and sanctions evasion and report circumstances that might justify reconsidering the exemptions.
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