The US decision to purchase Russian diesel fuel is not an economic one. It is a geopolitical decision to lift energy sanctions against Russia, and it may be driven by the idea of resuming supplies of Russian energy resources to Europe. This was stated by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum and Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2014 to 2016, during an interview with journalist Dmytro Gordon.
Yatsenyuk emphasised that, from an economic point of view, this agreement makes no sense. “The volume of diesel that the US will theoretically purchase from Russia over three months covers the United States’ demand for just three days. This does not solve any problems in the US. What does Russia get? Approximately $2.6 billion in foreign exchange earnings and approximately $575 million in revenue for the federal budget, which will be channelled into the war against Ukraine,” he noted.
KSF Chairman explains this move as a result of US domestic politics. “The question of why the US President did this has only one answer: on 3 November, the mid-term congressional elections will take place, and diesel prices have long since exceeded $6 per gallon. This is almost double the price prior to the war in Iran, which triggered a rise in diesel prices in the United States and a rise in oil prices globally,” Yatsenyuk emphasised.
The former prime minister sees the real aim of this decision by the US administration as being to bring Russia back into the European energy market. “Most likely, certain officials in Washington are considering lifting energy sanctions against Russia altogether and resuming energy supplies from Russia to Europe. And this is exactly what the war criminal Putin needs: the hundreds of billions of dollars he lost after Europe turned its back on Russian energy supplies. He has lost a premium market,” noted Chairman of the KSF.