President Donald Trump signaled on Tuesday that Washington is prepared to snap Russian oil sanctions back into place, a move that would reverse months of temporary waivers and align the US more closely with European allies who never stopped pushing for maximum pressure on the Kremlin.
The announcement came during the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, where the Ukraine war and Russian energy revenues dominated the agenda.
What changed, and why now
Starting in March 2026, the US issued a series of temporary waivers on Russian crude sanctions. The reason was straightforward: Washington’s confrontation with Iran had sent global energy prices surging, and adding Russian supply constraints on top of that would have been economic self-harm.
Then, over the weekend, the US and Iran agreed to a truce. Oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz began normalizing almost immediately.
