CNN: Trump’s diesel deal with Putin drives a wedge through the Western alliance

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By agreeing to open Russia’s taps and release hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel into a starving global market, the Kremlin has achieved something that raw military might on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine could never deliver, CNN notes.

The deal, which involves suspending fuel export sanctions on Russia for six months to allow for diesel sales at market prices, will be a welcome boon for a Russian economy that is creaking under the strain of a war in Ukraine that has dragged on far longer than anticipated.

But for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s strongman president, the real benefit isn’t the billions of dollars in fresh revenue. It is the wedge this deal, and the rhetoric around it, drives right through the heart of the Western alliance, which has aimed to isolate Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump spelled out the new and extraordinary reality in stark terms as he mocked the angry reaction of Ukraine’s wartime leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, who derided the deal as a “weak decision by a strong partner” that provides “extra money for this war.”

“We said you can do whatever you want to Russia. Don’t hit the refineries because that’s a world problem that’s caused and he wants to make problems for the world. He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers,” Trump said before calling for a new Ukrainian leader, essentially blaming high global fuel prices, especially acute in the United States, on Ukraine.

By framing the Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries as an assault on American interests, Washington is effectively aligning its economic priorities with Moscow’s survival — even as analysts have suggested the deal is unlikely to dramatically move the needle on diesel prices.

The US has powerful levers it can pull to get Ukraine to play ball.

Washington no longer provides money and weapons to Kyiv. But vital American intelligence sharing — the digital backbone of Ukrainian defense — risks being cut off if Ukraine now continues to strike at the Russian infrastructure Trump wants left untouched. The threat is real — the US did just that in the wake of the notorious Oval Office blowup last year.

In Moscow, on the other hand, the mood is upbeat.

“The Russian side confirmed its willingness to supply oil and petroleum products to the US market and global markets at large,” Putin said in an official statement after a prearranged telephone call with Trump on Friday night.

“I am convinced this will have a positive impact on the entire global economy,” he added…

Both he and Trump want Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries to immediately stop. Both want Ukraine’s president to be replaced with someone who will agree a quick deal.

And just a few weeks after Trump signed a bill into law, sponsored by the late US Senator Lindsey Graham, allowing for punishing sanctions to be imposed on any country that bought Russian oil, Washington has now become a customer itself.

All at once, it seems, a battered but relatively unified Western front that has stood against resource-rich Moscow for more than four years looks like it is being dealt another powerful blow.

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