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Russia is the most heavily sanctioned large economy there has ever been. Its reserves abroad are frozen, its banks cut off, its largest oil companies blacklisted. Yet it still sells several million barrels of oil a day, mostly to India and China. Washington decides, by licence and waiver, how tightly the measures bite, and uses that as its main lever in the talks over Ukraine. In 2026 it has loosened them when oil ran short and tightened them when talks stalled.
The wider relationship and each side's full account: The United States and Russia.
On 16 September 2026 Congress passed a Russia sanctions bill. On 18 September the president signed it, with new tariff powers. The same day Russia placed Nestle and Auchan under temporary state control, and Russia and China vetoed UN Iran sanctions monitoring. On 23 September the EU extended its Russia sanctions and dropped two oligarchs from the list. On 29 September the president backed a plan to ease some Russia sanctions.
Whether sanctions work. They have not stopped the war in four years. They have cost Russia markets, technology and much of its savings. Each side reads the same facts as proof.
Who holds the lever. The president can ease or tighten by decree, and has. Congress has now written the measures into law so that he cannot lift them alone.
Third countries. Sanctions bind only those who obey them. India and China buy Russian oil at a discount and say no one has the right to forbid it. Washington now threatens them directly.
Sanctions are a tool, not a policy. They give Russia a reason to settle and can be eased step by step as it does. Waivers issued when the Iran war cut supplies kept fuel prices bearable for Americans and allies without changing the pressure that matters. Countries that finance Russia's war by buying its oil can expect to pay for it in their trade with the United States.
The sanctions are illegal, were meant to break Russia's economy, and failed. Russia found new buyers and built its own industries. The waivers prove the world market cannot do without Russian oil. A partner that talks about peace while its Congress passes new measures shows that the hostility is permanent, and lifting them all is a condition of any settlement.
Washington's leaves out that it relaxed the measures when its own war made oil expensive, which tells Moscow that price comes before principle; and that four years of sanctions have not changed Russia's aims.
Moscow's leaves out that its growth has stopped, its interest rates are among the highest of any large economy, its oil sells at a discount and its rainy-day fund is nearly spent; and that it demands the removal of measures it says do not work.
The buyers' leaves out the profit: Indian refiners resell products made from discounted Russian crude, some of them to Europe, and both countries use Russia's weakness to dictate prices.
The Europeans' leaves out that they went on buying Russian liquefied gas throughout the war.
Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.
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RussiaThey did not vote for these sanctions and are not bound by them. Europe bought Russian energy for decades and still buys some. Energy security for more than two billion people is not Washington's to grant or withhold, and tariffs used to enforce another country's foreign policy are coercion.
Europe gave up cheap Russian energy at great cost and holds most of the frozen reserves. Washington eases and tightens without asking, and may one day trade the whole structure for a deal Europe has not seen.
