Opinion

Inside the legal design of America's Russia sanctions U-turn

The first Russian diesel tanker under the new deal between Russia and the United States is now heading for New York with a 40,000-metric-ton cargo, enough to cover barely two hours of American demand. The deal began with a phone call, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have persuaded his U.S. counterpart, President Donald Trump, that Russian diesel could ease the energy prices he blamed on Ukraine's strikes. And the argument appears to have landed. Within a week, Washington had