Bipartisan Senators Challenge Trump's Russian Diesel Deal — SkimNews
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- Seven bipartisan U.S. senators — Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Blumenthal, Ron Wyden, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis, and John Curtis — jointly challenged the legality of the Russian diesel deal in an October 11 statement, citing the 2022 ban.
- Trump announced the deal on October 9, 2026 after a phone call with Putin, claiming an agreement to immediately supply 300,000 tons of Russian diesel to the U.S. and global marketplace.
- The 2022 congressional ban on Russian energy imports remains in effect until Russia ends its aggression against Ukraine and ceases threats to NATO allies, the senators said, and was designed to prevent American dollars from financing Putin's war.
- The recently passed Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act gave the President authority to impose sweeping sanctions on Moscow and 100% tariffs on its top five oil and gas trading partners, including India and China — a power the senators now say is being inverted.
- The Trump Administration has not consulted Congress or submitted any statutory explanation justifying the import decision, according to the senators, who demanded the White House "immediately reverse course."
- The senators argued the U.S. "should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians," framing the diesel deal as a direct contradiction of stated U.S. policy.
Why it matters: Seven senators from both parties are invoking a clear 2022 statute to block a presidential energy deal struck one-on-one with Putin — a direct legal challenge that, if Congress acts, could force the White House to scrap the 300,000-ton arrangement and reignite a fight over who controls U.S.-Russia energy trade.
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