WASHINGTON: The US government on Thursday temporarily eased economic sanctions against Russia to allow Russian oil currently stranded at sea to be sold to India.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a Russia-related licence "Authorizing the Delivery and Sale of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products of Russian Federation Origin Loaded on Vessels as of March 5, 2026 to India," the Treasury said in a statement.
It said the transactions, including from vessels blocked by various sanctions regimes, are authorized through the end of the day on April 3, 2026.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the waiver was issued "To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market."
"This deliberately short-term measure will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government as it only authorizes transactions involving oil already stranded at sea," he posted on X.
The sale to India will "alleviate pressure caused by Iran's attempt to take global energy hostage," he added, even though India has said it will stop purchasing Russian oil as part of a trade deal with the United States.
In a rare effort to pressure Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Russian oil majors Lukoil and Rosneft last November.
Those moves -- the most powerful by Trump against Russia over the Ukraine war -- saw major buyers of Russian oil scramble to find alternative suppliers.
Russia has reportedly built up a flotilla of old oil tankers of opaque ownership to get around sanctions imposed by Washington, the European Union and the G7 group of nations, over Moscow's 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine.