Russian diesel, continued: three tankers head for the United States, Europe must uphold its sanctions and put its own house in order

Three weeks after the deal between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was announced, Russian diesel is now at sea. According to AFP, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday 27 October that three tankers were heading for the United States and that a fourth was due to set sail this Wednesday.

The facts

According to the Financial Times, as reported by the Ukrainian outlet UNITED24, the three ships are carrying around 140,000 tonnes of diesel. The first, the Agioi Fanendes, is expected in New York around 7 November, the Talisman around the 9th and the Leruo around the 11th, a few days after the US midterm elections on 3 November.

The detail matters: at least two of these ships appear on Western sanctions lists. According to Fox News, the Talisman is sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The Leruo, flying the flag of Sierra Leone, was sanctioned in 2025 by the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada for ship-to-ship transfers at sea and practices designed to conceal its routes, UNITED24 reports.

The deal, announced on 9 October, provides, according to Fox News, for Moscow to put 300,000 tonnes of diesel back on the world market, then 500,000 tonnes in November, and possibly a million tonnes a month after that. According to Al Jazeera, the US Treasury has suspended the sanctions targeting these sales until April 2027. On 16 October, a presidential order also suspended the sanctions and tariffs provided for by a law passed by Congress in mid-September, in the name of "the national interest", according to an AFP dispatch published by the DH. Kirill Dmitriev, an adviser to the Kremlin, called it a "historic" moment.

The positions

In Washington, the argument is first and foremost about purchasing power. A gallon of diesel costs on average 6.34 dollars, compared with 3.66 a year earlier, according to figures cited by the Financial Times. The administration argues that more Russian diesel on the world market will ease prices, which have been pushed up by the war with Iran and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries. Jeremy Paner, a former Treasury official interviewed by Fox News, believes the president does have the power to authorise these imports through a licence.

This reading is contested even in Congress. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal argues, again according to Fox News, that a mere licence cannot override the 2022 law banning Russian oil. Lawmakers from both parties, including Republican Thom Tillis, have warned banks, ports and distributors that they could face investigations.

In Europe, the response was clear as early as 10 October. The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said, according to AFP, that lifting these sanctions:

gives Moscow more revenue to wage war — Kaja Kallas

Germany rejected any easing, and Czech President Petr Pavel said the decision weakened the pressure for a ceasefire, UNITED24 reports. The spokesman for the French foreign ministry, Pascal Confavreux, summed up the French position on 12 October:

yes to a ceasefire, but no to giving in to Russia — Pascal Confavreux

The analysis

Economically, the effect of these cargoes remains uncertain. Researcher Federico Santopinto, of IRIS, told RTBF that the deal followed mainly an electoral logic and should not significantly change prices. The arrival dates, after the vote, do not contradict this reading.

The problem lies elsewhere. Sanctions are only worth as much as their consistency. When a ship on the European blacklist is welcomed into an American port, the whole Western edifice loses credibility, and shadow fleets draw a simple lesson: getting around the rules can pay. According to Jeremy Paner, the US licence does not cover European companies, which remain bound by EU law.

But Europe will only be credible if it also puts its own house in order. According to Al Jazeera, more than 12 million tonnes of Russian liquefied natural gas arrived in EU ports between January and September 2026, up 9.5% year on year, and France was reportedly the largest buyer in September, for around 446 million euros. The European roadmap provides, according to AFP, for an end to Russian gas imports by November 2027. One can reproach Washington for financing the war through diesel; it is harder to do so while continuing to buy gas.

A policy faithful to the Gaullist tradition means neither falling in line with Washington nor settling for words. It means holding a line: international law, solidarity with a country under attack, and energy security that depends neither on Moscow nor on the electoral moods of the United States. That requires speeding up the exit from Russian gas and investing in renewables and energy sufficiency, while protecting low-income households who pay a high price at the pump.

Conclusion

The tankers will arrive after 3 November, once the American vote is over. Europe, for its part, will still have the question before it. France could propose to its partners to bring forward the date of the ban on Russian LNG and to step up checks on sanctioned ships sailing off its coasts. Is Paris ready to pay that price in order to be consistent?

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.