All posts tagged "Russia"

President Donald Trump's administration is quietly weighing a fresh concession to Moscow, one the Kremlin has pushed hard behind closed doors.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Trump administration is reviewing a request to lift sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a multibillion-dollar state fund the Biden administration branded a "slush fund" for Russian President Vladimir Putin when it hit the fund with penalties days after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

A U.S. official confirmed to The Times that the Trump administration is assessing the fund's application through established channels as part of an effort to "improve U.S.-Russia relations and help end the war." The official praised the fund's chief, Kirill Dmitriev, as "a helpful envoy."...

A gas venture that came up in President Donald Trump's Ukraine peace talks had a hidden backer, according to its former boss.

Polar LNG, a startup pitching a plan to export natural gas from Alaska's North Slope, received secret funding from Russian energy giant Novatek, The New York Times reported Friday. Joel Riddle, who ran the company until he resigned in September, told the Times he was misled into believing the money came from a firm in the United Arab Emirates.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the project last month with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, people familiar with the negotiations told the Times. White House officials see energy deals like it as a way to smooth relations with Moscow....

A conservative editorial board threw cold water on one of President Donald Trump's latest diplomatic wins, warning his team was getting played.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board wrote Wednesday that there is "no cause to be grateful" to Russian President Vladimir Putin for freeing Stephen Hubbard, a retired American teacher jailed in Russia since 2022. Trump said Wednesday that Putin let Hubbard go after a personal plea from the president and asked for nothing in return.

The board welcomed Hubbard home but argued the Russian leader "takes Western hostages as part of his statecraft." The editorial laid out a pattern. Putin seizes someone, slaps them with bogus charges, secures a conviction in a rigged court and then frees or swaps them whenever it suits him....

Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) is splitting with President Donald Trump over his decision to gut her late brother's signature law imposing sanctions on Russia.

Graham pushed back on Saturday against Trump's move to exempt Russia from the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, The New York Times reported. Her brother, a longtime Russia hawk, had worked for over a year to line up votes for the measure before he died.

"Personally, I would choose to put the pressure on Russia to end the war and get gas prices down," Graham told reporters at a campaign stop. "Because I don't trust Putin, and I don't trust Russia."...

Critics across the political spectrum unloaded on President Donald Trump after he threw Russia a lifeline with a stroke of his pen.

Trump signed an executive order Friday night exempting Russia from a sweeping package of penalties Congress passed last month, just two days before they were set to take effect, The New York Times reported. The law, named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), targeted Russian officials, oligarchs and banks to choke off cash for Moscow's war on Ukraine.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who co-wrote the bill, tore into the president on X. "Donald Trump confirms again that he stands on the side of a bloodthirsty thug & the enablers of Russia's war machine & against the majority of Americans, their representatives in both houses of Congress, & our European allies," he wrote....

President Donald Trump has handed Russia an economic lifeline days before a punishing crackdown on Moscow's war chest was set to begin.

Trump signed an executive order Friday night exempting Russia from penalties laid out in the Graham Act, The New York Times and the Associated Press reported. The law, named for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who died in July, was scheduled to take effect Sunday.

The measure aimed to hit Russian officials, oligarchs and banks in an effort to choke off the money funding Moscow's war on Ukraine. It also handed Trump fresh tariff powers, including the ability to slap up to 100 percent levies on countries buying Russian oil and gas and up to 500 percent on Russian goods entering the U.S., per The Times....