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Trump waives Russia sanctions law, lifting threat of 100% tariffs on India and China
Two days before the penalties were due, the President set them aside in the 'national interests'. Democrats called it a surrender to Putin; Moscow called it historic.
Key points
- Trump waived the sanctions and tariffs in the Graham Act two days before they were due on 18 October.
- The law had threatened a 100% tariff on the top five buyers of Russian oil and gas, a group that includes India.
- Co-author Richard Blumenthal said the waivers had nothing to do with national security.
President Donald Trump has set aside almost all of the sanctions and tariffs in a new US law meant to punish Russia and the countries that buy its oil, sparing India and China a threatened 100% tariff two days before it could have applied.
In an executive order dated 16 October and released late on Friday night in Washington, Trump said he had certified to Congress that the waiver “is in the national interests of the United States”. The penalties under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which he signed on 18 September, were due to kick in on 18 October.
What the order does
The order first spells out the duties the law calls for: a 500% increase on goods from Russia, and a 100% increase on goods from the five largest importers of Russian crude oil and natural gas if they make new purchases on or after 18 October. A further 100% would fall on the five biggest facilitators of Russian sanctions evasion.
It then waives those duties, along with the law’s main sanctions provisions. The waivers stay in force until the President or the Secretary of State decides otherwise. Sanctions already in place under the existing Russia-related national emergency are untouched, and the US Trade Representative must still monitor and report on who is buying Russian oil.
The law, named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham, passed with support from both parties.
Anger in Washington and Kyiv
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, one of the law’s co-authors, wrote on X: “These waivers have nothing to do with our national security.” He called the decision “craven, cowardly”. Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said: “Trump’s latest surrender to Putin again betrays our Ukrainian partners.”
In Moscow, the Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev called the suspension “an important and truly historic moment”.
Alexander Kirk of the campaign group Urgewald said the law had been hollowed out “before its main sanctions could bite”, calling the move “a betrayal of the bipartisan effort behind this law”.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking after a night of heavy Russian strikes on his country’s power grid, said the decision would ease pressure on Russia and bring “financial rewards for Putin”. The waiver follows a US deal that lets Russia sell diesel abroad, which Zelenskyy has also criticised.
What it means for India
The 100% tariff was aimed squarely at the biggest buyers of Russian energy, and India is among them. India’s Russian crude imports were about 2.08 million barrels a day in August, roughly 45% of its crude imports, according to Kpler shipping data.
New Delhi had pushed back when the bill passed. The Ministry of External Affairs said on 17 September that India remained “firmly committed to ensuring energy security for its 1.4 billion people”. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar raised the law with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New York on 23 September.
The waiver removes the most immediate threat to Indian exports to the US. It does not end the law: the President can lift the waiver at any time. Rubio is due in Mumbai for talks with Jaishankar on 20 October. The Indian government had not commented on the waiver by Saturday afternoon.
The documents
- Implementing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026The White House, 16 October 2026