President Trump signed an executive order on Friday night exempting Russia from a new sanctions measure that Congress passed last month, offering another economic lifeline to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin as the United States turns to Russia for help in lowering gas prices.
The sanctions were intended to target Russian officials, oligarchs and financial institutions, and were part of a law that was named after Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died in July after spending more than a year building support for the measure.
The law, which is intended to squeeze the financial lifelines sustaining Russia’s war against Ukraine, also provided Mr. Trump with additional tariff authority that he could use to punish countries that continue to trade with Russia.
The White House has broad authority to issue sanctions exemptions or waivers, and the new law requires Mr. Trump to notify Congress only if he opts against imposing the economic restrictions on Russia. Two days before the law is set to take effect, Mr. Trump exercised that power.
“I am hereby waiving the application of such sanctions, restrictions and duties provided for in the Graham Act,” Mr. Trump said in the order. “I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States.”
The order does not explain why waiving the sanctions is in the interests of the United States or what rationale Mr. Trump is providing to Congress for the waivers.
The decision comes as Mr. Trump has in recent weeks embraced Russia and expressed frustration that Ukraine’s attacks on Russian refineries were helping to push up gasoline and diesel prices around the world. The biggest factor limiting supplies, though, remains the war in Iran. “The main issue is still the Strait of Hormuz — that there is not enough diesel coming out of the Strait of Hormuz,” said Sarah Raffoul, an oil product analyst at Argus Media. The price increases have triggered inflation weeks ahead of midterm elections that could cost Republicans control of Congress. Ukraine said it was willing to halt its refinery strikes if Russia halted its own attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Mr. Putin refused.
Mr. Trump announced last week that he had reached a deal with Mr. Putin, and that the United States would begin importing Russian diesel fuel. The Treasury Department temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports “to allow the supply of Russian diesel to the global market,” and gave Russian energy producers a general license to sell diesel fuel until April.
That decision angered President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, and drew backlash from European officials. This week, a bipartisan group of senators urged Mr. Trump to reverse the sanctions waiver on diesel fuel.
The move to waive the sanctions that were enacted in the new law drew a swift rebuke from critics in Congress, who had predicted that Mr. Trump would not impose them.
“Trump’s latest surrender to Putin again betrays our Ukrainian partners and defies clear congressional intent of legislation designed to punish Russia for its illegal war of aggression,” said Representative Don Beyer, Democrat of Virginia.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the banking committee, called Mr. Trump’s move an “abject failure” of leadership.
“By waiving these sanctions, Trump is thumbing his nose at Congress’s direction that he ratchet up pressure on the Kremlin, and enabling Vladimir Putin to continue his war of aggression,” Ms. Warren said.
In Ukraine, several public figures said the move amounted to giving up a powerful tool for choking off Russia’s ability to pay for the missiles and drones pounding Ukrainian cities every day.
Mr. Trump “is feeding the Russian war machine,” Oleksandr Merezhko, the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said in a phone interview. “This is absolutely outrageous.”
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, an adviser to Mr. Zelensky who spent months lobbying American officials and members of Congress to pass the sanctions law, commented bitterly on Facebook: “On the wrong side of history.”
The sanctions law was the brainchild of Mr. Graham, a Russia hawk and close ally of Mr. Trump’s. The legislation, which was set to take effect on Oct. 18, won bipartisan support despite concern that the president would not heed the sanctions requirements, and that he would potentially misuse the tariff authority.
The law gave Mr. Trump the power to target countries importing Russian oil and gas with up to 100 percent tariffs, subject all Russian imports to the United States to up to 500 percent tariffs, and take greater aim at Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and banking system.
In the executive order, Mr. Trump said that the United States would “monitor” the purchases of Russian oil by other countries and that his advisers would recommend whether to take further action on tariffs.
It is not clear if waiving some of the sanctions means that Russia will be welcomed back into the Western financial system after years of being an outcast.
“The underlying sanctions architecture remains in place, and no one wants to be caught holding the risk when the waiver is pulled,” said Daniel Tannebaum, a partner at Oliver Wyman, a consulting firm that advises banks on anti-money laundering and sanctions matters. “I’m not sure what positive impact to the American economy will be derived in reality.”
The move to exempt Russia from the new sanctions came days after Ukraine said that a Pentagon-funded satellite internet program used by the Ukrainian military had been throttled without warning, disrupting military operations and fueling concerns that Washington was tightening the screws on Kyiv even as it eased them on Moscow.
It remains unclear how the throttling came about. Ukrainian officials have strongly suggested that restrictions had been deliberately imposed on the program, which is a military version of Starlink, the satellite-internet network operated by SpaceX.
On Friday, Mr. Trump denied having ordered restrictions and said that he didn’t think that Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, had either. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has demanded an investigation into the disruptions.
Constant Méheut contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.
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