Trump pauses Russian sanctions package after striking diesel deal with Putin

JUST IN: Trump pauses sweeping new Russia sanctions passed by Congress, signing a waiver he says is in the US national interest after striking a diesel deal with Putin.

Trump just paused the Russia sanctions Congress passed. Paused them himself, with a waiver.

The package was named after the late senator Lindsey Graham, and it was built to choke off the money keeping Russia's war in Ukraine running. Trump signed a national interest waiver and set the whole thing aside, and the reason he gave is a diesel deal he's struck with Vladimir Putin.

So walk through that sequence. Congress votes sanctions into law. The president cuts a fuel arrangement with the man the sanctions target. Then he uses his own pen to switch the sanctions off. Lawmakers who passed this measure are waking up to find their leverage traded away for diesel, and Kyiv is waking up to find the financial pressure on Moscow just got lighter.

A sanctions bill with Graham's name on it, shelved for a handshake with Putin. That's where American Russia policy stands tonight.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.