Trump’s birthday gift to Putin is only half the story

U.S. President Donald Trump greets his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025. | Sputnik / Pool / via REUTERS

Oct 15, 2026

These are humbling times for advocates of tougher Western sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s Russia, almost five years on from its invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump is driving an oligarch-sized superyacht through curbs on Moscow’s energy exports with a deal to release more diesel onto international markets. And while the European Union is pressing on gamely with a 22nd set of punitive economic measures against Russian individuals and entities, it’s starting to see the limits of its reach. Loopholes for the sanctioned are appearing everywhere and even EU members such as France and Luxembourg are trying to fix local political problems by lifting restrictions on certain billionaires.

Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russian sanctions have been on a depressing pathway, with the Trump White House aiming its financial and diplomatic weaponry anywhere but Moscow. The war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz compounded the problem, creating higher prices for Russian oil and ultimately Trump’s desperation for relief for the diesel market ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. The result: a nicely wrapped gift for Putin’s birthday.

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