President Donald Trump waived sweeping new Russia sanctions and tariffs, including a 500% duty increase on Russian goods, in an October 16 executive order issued two days before a key implementation deadline. The decision puts on hold major provisions of legislation he signed on September 18, reversing the immediate prospect of substantially greater economic pressure on Moscow.
The White House said the waivers serve the national interest and that Trump had sent Congress the required certification and explanatory report. It also explicitly preserves sanctions imposed under earlier executive orders addressing harmful Russian government activities, an important limit: this is a suspension of new statutory measures, not the removal of all U.S. sanctions on Russia.
Tariffs reaching beyond Russia
The enacted law, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, reaches both Russia and countries helping sustain its energy trade. Section 112 provides for duties of up to 500% on Russian goods. Section 113 provides for duties of up to 100% on goods from qualifying major buyers of Russian crude oil or natural gas and leading facilitators of Russian oil-sanctions evasion.
Those provisions connect access to the American market with other countries’ purchases from Moscow. The statute defines covered energy buyers through both their purchasing activity after the implementation threshold and their position among the five largest importers during the preceding year; it also includes exceptions. The order specifies the tariff increases but immediately waives their application. The waived provisions also cover Russian officials, financial institutions, investment and energy-related activity.
A waiver Congress authorized
The mechanism is contained in the legislation itself. Section 115 authorizes the president to waive covered sanctions, restrictions and duties after submitting a written national-interest certification and a report explaining it. The statute permits an unclassified report with a classified annex. Trump invoked that authority rather than asking Congress to repeal the law, leaving its framework in place while withholding the specified penalties.
The distinction helps explain why passage and presidential signature did not guarantee enforcement. Before the House vote, Democratic Representatives Don Beyer, Gregory Meeks and Richard Neal issued a September 11 joint statement arguing that the bill expanded presidential tariff powers without ensuring sanctions would be applied. They supported stronger pressure on Russia but said the legislation’s design could undermine that objective. Their objection concerned the discretion Congress was granting, not opposition to Ukraine assistance.
Congressional criticism and Ukraine’s response
The package nevertheless won bipartisan support. The Associated Press reported that Senator Richard Blumenthal, a co-author, condemned the waiver as a rejection of congressional and allied support for Ukraine. Beyer called for Congress to repair the law. AP also reported that the White House did not immediately explain publicly how withholding the sanctions served the national interest, beyond the order’s statement that an explanation had gone to Congress.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that easing pressure would encourage further Russian attacks, according to Reuters. Russian investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev welcomed the decision and argued the legislation could have halted economic cooperation between the countries. Those opposing responses describe the governments’ assessments of the waiver; they do not establish its eventual effect on the war or on energy prices.
A broader step than the diesel exception
The decision follows a separate U.S. move to ease restrictions on Russian diesel, which the administration presented as an effort to reduce fuel costs. The Financial Times reported the new waiver against that backdrop and worsening U.S.-Ukraine relations. TAQ previously covered the bipartisan challenge to the diesel exception. Friday’s order is a distinct, wider development affecting a newly enacted sanctions framework, rather than another objection to that earlier fuel arrangement.
The order requires continued monitoring of Russian energy purchases and sanctions evasion. Its waivers remain effective until Trump, or the secretary of state consulting the Treasury secretary and trade representative as appropriate, determines further action is warranted. That leaves implementation dependent on another executive decision, while Congress confronts the consequences of the flexibility it wrote into the law.
