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President Donald Trump\u2019s deal for Russian diesel exposed the US to legal questions, opened a rift with his Republican allies and European leaders and heightened tensions with Ukraine \u2014 all in exchange for an outcome that experts suggest is unlikely to succeed.<\/p>\n
Under the agreement \u2014 announced late last week \u2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin would begin releasing diesel supplies into global markets as part of a US effort to bring down prices from their record highs before the November 3 midterm elections. Trump has also intensified demands on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop attacking Russian refineries and announced an energy ceasefire between the two sides.<\/p>\n
The decisions and the ceasefire are all a bet that lowering fuel prices will be the best way to win more votes next month despite the risk of a backlash from political friends and foes alike. On Sunday, a bipartisan group of senators argued that Trump should \u201creverse course\u201d on his plan to cut a diesel deal with Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians,\u201d the senators said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The accord also provoked fresh tension with Europe, where officials warned that it would bolster Moscow\u2019s war effort in Ukraine. They said the US should impose more sanctions instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would call on the US to put the sanctions in place so that actually we could finish this war, so that all the effects of these attacks on refineries would not be there,\u201d top European Union diplomat Kaja Kallas told reporters in Luxembourg on Monday before meeting with the bloc\u2019s foreign ministers.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the legal challenge. A 2022 law prohibits the US from buying most Russian energy products. It\u2019s still not clear how Trump plans to get around that, and some lawmakers, including Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, have already said they don\u2019t expect the deal to go through.<\/p>\n
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Trump acknowledged on Monday that neither side had actually committed to stop attacking each other\u2019s energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey agreed. You know why? Because I said you agree,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cThat\u2019s why they agreed \u2014 because I said they agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think actually Putin wants to make a deal more than Zelenskyy,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Keith Kellogg, the president\u2019s former envoy to Kyiv, dismissed Trump\u2019s latest disagreement with Zelenskyy as \u201cnoise.\u201d He said he didn\u2019t expect it to escalate to anything similar to their infamous face-to-face argument in the Oval Office in February 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rhetoric will kind of take care of itself,\u201d Kellogg said. \u201cLook at what\u2019s happening on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all in exchange for an effort to bring down global diesel prices that have remained stubbornly high, mostly because of the Iran war, which has throttled traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Russia\u2019s conflict with Ukraine also played a role, after Russia extended a ban on diesel exports through September following a wave of Ukrainian drone strikes on the country\u2019s refineries.<\/p>\n
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Unfortunately for Trump, even if Russian diesel reaches the global market in the coming weeks, it probably won\u2019t offer much relief for American farmers and truckers before the midterms.<\/p>\n
The first release of 2.25 million barrels in October is 1.4 million barrels less than American consumers used in a single day as of early in the month. Shipments from Russia to the East Coast typically take more than two weeks, and record-high shipping costs would also likely push prices higher.<\/p>\n
If Russian refineries are able to resume some exports, it would provide marginal relief to a global oil market that\u2019s sorely missed the supply, analysts say. Yet whether those shipments restart in earnest depends on the durability of an energy ceasefire that Trump announced over the weekend. Neither Russia nor Ukraine said they had agreed to such a deal.<\/p>\n
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said monthly diesel exports of 3 million tons \u2014 near levels seen before Ukraine\u2019s drone campaign \u2014 will only be possible after December.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no indication that any diesel is making its way to the US just yet,\u201d Bloomberg geoeconomics analyst Alex Kokcharov wrote in a note. \u201cGiven questions around the legality of easing sanctions and Russia\u2019s own export capacity, it\u2019s not clear this will result in any net increase to global diesel supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
#Trumps #diesel #deal #irks #allies #reduce #prices<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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