Warren, Colleagues Press Administration to End Seven-Month Pause on Targeted Russia Sanctions as China Jump-Starts Flagship Russian Energy Project
Market analysts and headlines are warning, “China Starts Buying U.S.-Sanctioned Russian Gas, Defying Trump”
“We call on the Trump Administration to resume the regular cadence of targeted Russia sanctions as evaders increasingly degrade the President’s leverage to help negotiate a just peace.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Chris Coons (D-DE), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-NY), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asking whether China’s flouting of U.S. sanctions on a flagship Russian energy project will finally end the Trump Administration’s seven-month pause on rounds of basic, targeted designations.
In only one stark example of how evaders are undermining President Trump’s own leverage to push for peace, China has now become the first country to take natural gas deliveries from Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project. Until recently, the United States and our partners had used multiple rounds of targeted sanctions to successfully prevent any buyers for one of the Kremlin’s most strategically important potential revenue streams.
“Energy analysts have warned that absent a swift and decisive response, these first deliveries will signal to other potential buyers that they can buy sanctioned Russian LNG cargo without consequence, opening up the floodgates for Russia to receive tens of billions of dollars in revenue to fund its war machine and continue to kill Ukrainian civilians,” the Senators highlighted.
“Targeted sanctions are the backbone of our pressure to end the war and help Ukraine achieve a just peace. The Administration’s claims that even basic Russia sanctions would scuttle negotiations do not stand up to scrutiny,” the Senators note. “President Trump asserts he won’t act until others stop buying Russian oil, but the G7 implemented a Russian oil embargo in 2022.” Meanwhile, “our European partners have stepped up and led the charge.”
They continued: “The United States must not permit Russia to quietly reintegrate into global markets through deliberate sanctions evasion, and the stakes are higher when the evasion is as blatant and brazen as this. Ukraine’s future and the integrity of U.S. sanctions are directly at stake.”
The Senators are seeking answers no later than October 1, 2025 on the Administration’s plans to reinforce current U.S. sanctions on the flagship energy project, deter future deliveries from the project, and restore economic pressure against Russia and its enablers after months of inaction. The Senators are also seeking answers on the extent of Secretary Bessent’s conversations, if any, with PRC Vice Premier He Lifeng regarding deliveries from Arctic LNG 2.
This oversight effort builds on the investigative report released last month by the minority staffs of the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations Committees – led by Ranking Members Warren and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) – detailing how the Trump Administration is failing to use core economic tools to pressure Putin and degrade Russia’s war machine.
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