Putin envoy in Washington, bipartisan push for tougher stance: Why Trump spared Russia from his sweeping tariff list

In a sweeping move that will reshape global trade, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced new reciprocal tariffs targeting more than 180 countries. The move, which Trump described as an effort to counter decades of "looting, pillaging, and plundering" of the US economy, conspicuously spared Russia. Ukraine, on the other hand, was hit with a 10% tariff, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

A White House official said was excluded due to existing sanctions that have already reduced trade between the two nations to nearly zero. 

An Axios report quoting White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Russia was left off the tariff list because "US sanctions already preclude any meaningful trade". However, the report noted that despite this, the US still trades more with Russia than with smaller nations such as Mauritius or Brunei, both of which made Trump’s tariff list. 

Trade between the US and Russia has plummeted from approximately $35 billion in 2021 to just $3.5 billion last year due to sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Tensions over US-Russia relations

While the White House maintains its tough stance on Russia, reports indicate that Moscow has asked Trump to lift certain sanctions as part of US-mediated ceasefire negotiations. These discussions have largely stalled, and Trump recently escalated tensions by threatening secondary tariffs on Russian oil. Speaking to NBC News' "Meet the Press," Trump declared, "If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia's fault ... I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia."

Adding another layer of complexity, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, met US officials in Washington on Wednesday. Dmitriev, who is sanctioned due to the Ukraine war, was granted a temporary waiver to travel for the meeting. 

The visit marks the highest-ranking Russian official to engage in state-level discussions in the US since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Officials have not disclosed the details of the discussions, though Dmitriev has longstanding ties to Trump’s inner circle dating back to the 2016 election, when the Mueller investigation found "sweeping and systematic" Russian interference in Trump’s favor.

Bipartisan push for tougher sanctions

Despite Trump’s exclusion of Russia from the latest round of tariffs, bipartisan pressure is mounting to tighten sanctions on Moscow and its allies. A group of 50 Republican and Democratic senators have introduced a proposal to impose 500% tariffs on imports from countries that continue to purchase fuel and uranium from Russia. These secondary sanctions are aimed at discouraging global financial support for the Russian energy sector, which has been a key economic pillar for the Kremlin during the war.