President Donald Trump signed an executive order on October 16 waiving the newly enacted sanctions against Russia under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, certifying to Congress that the waiver "at this time is in the national interests of the United States." The order suspended 13 numbered provisions of the Act, including 500% tariffs on Russian goods and 100% tariffs on imports from the largest purchasers of Russian oil and gas, such as China and India, two days before the October 18 implementation deadline.
Trump signed the Graham Act into law on September 18, naming it after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died in July. The Act passed the Senate 86-11 and the House 262-159, reflecting rare bipartisan consensus on economic pressure against Moscow. The October 16 order activates the tariff structure and simultaneously waives it, using waiver authority written into Section 115 of the Act itself; it leaves the pre-existing sanctions architecture from earlier executive orders untouched.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump wants to use a 60-day period to analyze the economic impact of imposing both sanctions and tariffs, according to Reuters. Fox Business reported that the order reserves the right to restore the measures. The waiver also came days after Trump announced an arrangement to release Russian diesel stocks onto global markets to curb energy prices, with the Treasury Department waiving sanctions on Russian diesel sales until April 2027.