By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. senators urged Trump officials on Friday to resume targeted sanctions on Russian energy supplies, saying the administration is allowing China to buy shipments of Russia’s liquefied natural gas which helps support the war on Ukraine.
President Donald Trump has said he is frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failure to reach a peace agreement with Ukraine.
But Trump has refrained from putting direct sanctions on Russian energy entities in his second term. Instead, he has imposed additional 25% tariffs on imports of goods from India for buying Russian oil.
Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project started in late 2023 but is behind schedule because of shortages of carriers and sanctions the West imposed on Russia before Trump’s return in January. The project had to halt operations last October.
Since August, however, the project has loaded about six LNG cargoes, discharging four at a Chinese port.
“The failure to enforce even existing sanctions against Russia and apparent willingness to give China a free pass to buy Russian energy fundamentally undercuts efforts to bring about an end to the war and to impact the Kremlin’s calculus in negotiations,” Senators Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse, Christopher Coons, Chris Van Hollen and four others wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The senators said the sanctions evasion sends a signal to other potential buyers that they can buy Russian LNG without consequence, and potentially allows Russia tens of billions of dollars in revenue that would help fund the war.
The Departments of State and Treasury did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The senators asked the officials to respond to questions by Oct. 1 including whether the administration is preparing sanctions associated with the cargoes to reinforce existing U.S. measures on the project and whether it intends to deter other major energy importers from buying the LNG.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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