The US plans to potentially sanction Russian sanctions relief as Donald Trump is trying to restore ties with Moscow and stop the war in Ukraine.
The White House has asked the state and the Treasury to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for US officials to discuss with Russian representatives as part of an ad for the administration with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic ties, sources say.
According to sources, the Sanctions Bureau is currently creating proposals to lift sanctions against some entities and individuals, including some Russian oligarchs.
The so-called options papers are often drafted by officials working on sanctions, but the recent White House specific demands underscore his advisor’s willingness to ease Russian sanctions as part of a potential deal with Trump and Moscow.
It was not immediately clear that Washington could specifically seek in exchange for sanction relief.
The White House, the State Department, the Treasury Department and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Kremlin last year called it “below zero” under the administration of Democrats who supported Ukraine with aid and weapons and imposed severe sanctions on Russia to punish it in the 2022 aggression.
However, Trump, who had promised a quick end to the war, quickly ruled the talks with Moscow, starting with a call with Vladimir Putin on February 12, followed by a meeting between Saudi Arabia and Turkish Russian authorities.
Trump in January threatened to tighten sanctions against Russia if Putin didn’t want to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. However, recently, Trump administration officials have openly acknowledged the possibility of easing sanctions against Moscow.
Last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent told Bloomberg Television that Russia could win economic relief, depending on how it approached negotiations over the coming weeks. Trump told reporters last week that Russia’s sanctions could be eased “at some point.”
The White House asked state and Treasury officials to develop a sanctions relief plan before Trump last week extended the emergency on the situation in Ukraine, a U.S. source said.
The state of emergency sanctions is the people involved in the Russian war with certain assets. These measures imposed by the then Barack Obama administration have been in place since March 2014, when Russia annexed Ukrainian Crimea.
It is unclear which Russian sanctions the Trump administration will consider lifting first.
Trump could issue an executive order that would allow the administration to begin the process of easing sanctions in Russia, but he would also need to seek Congressional approval to lift measures on certain entities, said John Smith, a partner at Morrison Forster Law Firm and director of Foreign Assets at the Department of Finance.
Since the Ukraine invasion in 2022, Russia has been able to build a wartime economy with increased military spending and industrial production. But experts say the country’s economy is fragile and it is in dire need of relief from Western sanctions.
Russia says it is open for economic cooperation. The Kremlin said last week that Russia has many rare earth metal deposits and that it is open to making deals to develop them after Putin reveals the possibility of such cooperation with the US.
A formal economic contract with Moscow would likely require the US to ease sanctions.
Trump has sought a mineral contract with Ukraine, which has a herd of lithium sediments and rare earth minerals, as a multi-billion-dollar phosphorus marration in US aid. However, no contract was signed after an explosive oval office meeting between Trump and Volodimia Zelensky on Friday.
