A License Is Not a Repeal

President Trump said on Friday, 9 October, that he had struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin under which Russia would supply diesel to the global market, Fortune reported, carrying the Associated Press’s account. Trump wrote that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter,” with 3 million more depending on refinery conditions, CNBC reported. “Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority,” he wrote.

The license

Shortly afterwards the Treasury Department said the president had directed its Office of Foreign Assets Control to issue “a temporary general license to allow the supply of Russian diesel to the global market,” CNBC reported. The license, General License 135, is dated 9 October and signed by the OFAC director, Bradley T. Smith. It authorises transactions otherwise barred by two sets of Russia sanctions regulations that relate to “the sale, delivery, offloading, or importation, including importation into the United States, of diesel fuel of Russian Federation origin” through 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on 7 April 2027, about six months. It does not authorise debits to US bank accounts of Russia’s central bank, its National Wealth Fund or its finance ministry. The AP, as carried by Fortune, described the relief as applying to diesel loaded onto tankers as of Friday; the license text sets no such loading date. The AP said it is the first such license to ease sanctions on diesel for longer than the standard 30-day window since the Ukraine war began, and that the Treasury had extended similar easing in March and April, though Secretary Scott Bessent had ruled it out earlier in the year.

The law it sits beside

On 18 September Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. CNBC described it as empowering him to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on the top purchasers of Russian crude oil or gas; the AP said it directs him to. The text passed by Congress supports the AP’s reading, with a qualification. Section 113 says that within 30 days of enactment the president “shall, notwithstanding any other provision of law, increase the rate of duty” on all goods from qualifying countries “to a rate of up to 100 percent ad valorem.” Those are countries among the five largest importers of Russian crude or gas that knowingly make new purchases, or among the top five facilitating Russian oil sanctions evasion, with an exception tied to natural gas for countries whose imports were under 15 per cent of Russia’s gas exports and that have taken significant steps to cut them. Section 115 lets the president waive any duty under that title, subject to conditions. The AP added that the law envisions sanctions on Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers and bans new US investment in Russia.

The license touches none of that text. But the AP wrote that the move casts doubt on whether the White House will impose sanctions this month; the law’s 30-day clock for the tariffs runs out on 18 October. Peter Harrell, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute of International Economic Law, wrote on X that the relaxation “pretty much proves the point that the Graham Russia Bill was not going to force the Trump Administration to increase economic pressure on Moscow,” CNBC reported.

Criticism crossed party lines. Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, wrote: “Unfortunately, while I understand the desire to bring down diesel prices, I am concerned the lifting of sanctions on Russian oil will only fund the Kremlin’s war machine—emboldening more violence and destruction, as we have seen in recent days.” Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute asked, “Can America tariff America?”

What is not answered

The White House did not immediately say who would pay for the fuel or when it would arrive, and did not clarify whether the November supplies would come before Election Day on 3 November, the AP reported. The AP also noted that the United States has not imported Russian oil or gas since 2022, when the Biden administration banned it. The license text expressly covers importation of Russian diesel into the United States as well as sales elsewhere; whether American buyers will take any of it, the sources do not say.

Russia has itself banned diesel exports since July, the AP said, because it has struggled to meet domestic demand after Ukraine’s repeated attacks on its refineries, and the International Energy Agency says Russian diesel output has fallen by about 30 per cent. Putin said in a Kremlin statement that Russia “confirmed its readiness to supply oil and oil products to the American and global markets.” The sources do not say whether Russia will lift its export ban to meet the volumes Trump listed. Al Jazeera reported analysts’ view that the deal will likely do little to ease the global energy crisis, and that European countries could refuse to buy Russian fuel at all. The US national average for diesel was $6.23 a gallon on Friday, per AAA figures the AP cited, after a record $6.52 on 22 September.

Kyiv’s answer

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “Any easing of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious weakness. Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged,” CNBC reported. Fortune said he also said negotiators were being “used as a smokescreen.”

A license is a temporary executive act with an end date, and the statute has none. Which of them governs Russian energy policy in the spring is not something Friday’s announcement settles.

Sources

The license number, date, signatory, scope, carve-out and expiry are from the text of OFAC’s General License 135. The quoted tariff provisions, the waiver and the 30-day deadline are from the text of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 as passed by Congress (H.R. 5334), and the 18 September signing date is from GovTrack’s record of the bill. The deal’s terms, the first-license point, the description of the law as directing tariffs, the other provisions of the law, the doubts about sanctions this month, the open questions, the 2022 import ban, Russia’s export ban and the price figures are from the Associated Press as carried by Fortune. The Treasury statement, the description of the law as empowering tariffs, the remarks of Harrell, McCaul and Lincicome and Zelenskyy’s statement are from CNBC. The analysts’ view on the effect and on Europe is from Al Jazeera.