The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License (GL) 135 on 9 October, a blanket exemption from sanctions for one class of trade. It authorises the sale, delivery, offloading and importation of Russian-origin diesel, "including importation into the United States", until 7 April 20271. OFAC Director Bradley T. Smith signed it under the Treasury's existing Russia sanctions regulations.
It landed on the day Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone for about an hour and a half. Reuters reported that the two leaders agreed Russian diesel supplies to American and world markets, and the Kremlin said Russia had "confirmed its readiness to supply oil and petroleum products to the American and global markets"2.
GL 135 keeps one door shut. Paragraph (b) bars any debit to US-held accounts of the Bank of Russia, the Russian National Wealth Fund and the Russian Finance Ministry3. In practice American buyers can pay Russian sellers, but nothing moves out of Moscow's blocked sovereign accounts.
The licence covers one product for six months. Washington's waiver for Russian crude has stayed lapsed since mid-June, so oil itself remains outside the licence. Kaja Kallas, the European Union (EU) foreign policy chief, wrote on X on 10 October: "This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won't." TASS, the Russian state news agency, relayed the post4.
