Trump puts on hold new Russia sanctions he signed into law

What the report says

US President Donald Trump has temporarily halted a new round of Russia sanctions that he had signed into law last month, according to Al Jazeera, moving to pause the measures by executive order on Friday. The action came two days before the law’s deadline for the sanctions to take effect and after Trump told Congress that the delay served the national interest.

The legislation was a bipartisan measure associated in the report with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. It passed both chambers by large margins and was designed to reduce Moscow’s wartime revenue by targeting Russian officials, banks and the “shadow fleet” of tankers carrying energy exports. It also required the president to consider tariffs on the five largest buyers of Russian oil or gas, with an exception for countries that meet a lower Russian gas import threshold and are taking steps to reduce those purchases.

The pause comes amid renewed political criticism of Trump’s approach to Moscow. Al Jazeera reported that it follows a separate agreement announced a week earlier for the United States to buy diesel from Russia, a move some lawmakers said could aid Russia’s war effort while doing little to lower fuel prices. Democratic Representative Don Beyer urged Congress to revise the law, arguing that it should not be weakened by the White House.

The article places the decision in the broader context of Trump’s shifting stance toward Russia and Ukraine, as well as domestic pressure over energy prices and the approaching midterm elections.