US Official: There’s a ‘Clear Path’ to New Russia Sanctions If Allies Stop Energy Purchases
The U.S. ambassador to NATO suggested this week that the Trump administration won’t sign off on any new Russia sanctions until all EU and NATO members stop buying Russian energy.
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Matthew Whitaker, who has served as the NATO ambassador since April, said that if U.S. “allies are serious about bringing peace to Ukraine, they need to starve the Russian war machine and stop purchasing Russian energy. Once they do that, obviously there's a clear path to additional U.S. and European sanctions.”
President Donald Trump wrote last month on social media that he was prepared to levy new sanctions against Moscow if U.S. allies stop purchasing Russian oil (see 2509150008). Whitaker, speaking during an Atlantic Council conference in Brussels, suggested that eliminating those energy purchases may be a condition for any new U.S. sanctions.
“Quite frankly, the ball is in the court of our European and Canadian allies,” he said. “Every single ally needs to start spending money on their defense and stop buying Russian energy.”
Whitaker was asked whether he thinks Trump will decline to sign off on a major bipartisan Russia sanctions bill until all allies eliminate Russian energy purchases. That bill, which has been delayed by congressional leaders to allow Trump to pursue a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine-Russia war, would impose additional sanctions on Russia and new tariffs on countries that buy its oil and gas (see 2509240058).
Whitaker didn’t directly answer, saying only that he believes Trump will continue to pressure allies to stop buying Russian oil and gas. “I think President Trump has looked at the entire horizon of this and has said, ‘What are we doing?’” Whitaker said. “If we're still giving European money to Russia to buy energy, sanctions aren't going to ultimately have as much bite.”
He added that countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic have “completely weaned themselves off of Russian oil and gas,” but Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey are still buying too much. “These are conversations that we're having as the United States with our allies and together through NATO as to how we also wean those folks off.”
“This is going to be hard, I know,” he said. “But we have to do it.”
Later in the conference, Daniel Fried, an Atlantic Council fellow and former U.S. ambassador to Poland, said the precondition suggested by Whitaker effectively gives Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other European leaders a “veto” over U.S. decisions to impose sanctions against Russia. Fried -- who appeared on a panel with David O’Sullivan, the EU’s sanctions envoy -- asked whether O’Sullivan believes the U.S. will actually follow through on its threat to withhold sanctions.
O’Sullivan said he didn’t hear Whitaker’s comments earlier in the conference.
“I think it would be a mistake -- and I'm not saying that this is what Ambassador Whitaker said -- but it would be a mistake to hand [Turkish President Recep] Erdogan or Mr. Orban or [Slovak Prime Minister Robert] Fico a veto over the extent to which we intensify our sanctions under pressure on Russia,” he said. “I'm sure that's not the intention of the administration.”
The EU has “long advocated the cessation of all purchases of Russian energy,” O’Sullivan added, and it has “had to accept that certain member states have particular dependencies that are difficult to phase out quickly,” specifically mentioning Slovakia and Hungary. “We would be delighted if the administration wanted to put more pressure on those countries to accelerate their weaning off of Russian energy supplies.”
O’Sullivan also said the U.S. and the EU should put similar pressure on India and China. “I think there are many ways to come at this problem of the revenue -- not just [through] tariffs,” he said. “I think there are also traditional sanctions that can be used.”
Dan Tannebaum, a sanctions lawyer and former Office of Foreign Assets Control official, said he believes the Trump administration needs to issue new “tangible” sanctions against Russia to ramp up pressure on Moscow. There's a package of new Russian shadow fleet designations that Trump has been “ready to sign for months,” but “he won't sign it.” Tannebaum also noted that Congress won’t pass its bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation without Trump’s approval.
“The president has applied a grand total of zero new sanctions on Russia since he's taken office again in January. None,” Tannebaum said. “There have been more members of the [International Criminal Court] designated than anyone related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Let that sink in for a moment. The bar is pretty low.”