The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board was outraged Thursday that President Donald Trump punched holes in U.S. sanctions on Russia — and penned a column demanding Trump “stop doing sanctions favors for Mr. Putin.”
The Treasury Department lifted certain Russian oil sanctions, which have been as harsh as possible as Russia continues its disastrous invasion of Ukraine, in response to Iran shutting down shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz amid war with the United States, disrupting around 20 percent of the world’s oil market.
This scheme, wrote the board, didn’t do much for U.S. allies, didn’t do much for the U.S., and pretty much just helped Russia make more money.
“The general license issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control temporarily allowed the sale of Russian oil normally subject to sanctions if it had been loaded on vessels by March 12,” wrote the board. “But strong U.S. energy production means Americans remain at little risk of supply shortages, and freeing up sanctioned Russian oil didn’t have much of an impact on global oil supply beyond the initial boost.”
“The Trump Administration says the relief hasn’t helped the Kremlin much because Russia gets most of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” wrote the board. “But the Kremlin calculates its mineral extraction tax based in part on the prior month’s prevailing prices for Russian oil exports. The U.S. sanctions relief allowed Russia to sell off its pent-up supply at less of a discount. This week prices for Russian Urals crude oil awaiting export hit the highest level since April 2012, according to Argus Media.”
Indeed, the board wrote, the only reason Russia’s profit from all this wasn’t higher was “Ukraine … recently stepped up its attacks on energy infrastructure and export facilities.”
The greatest irony, the board concluded, is that Russia is one of Iran’s biggest sources of intelligence they’ve been using to attack American and NATO military infrastructure — which should be “even more cause for President Trump to stop doing sanctions favors for Mr. Putin.”
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