Posting to X on Saturday, Kirill Dmitriev — who holds an investment envoy role under Putin — described the administration's decision to waive portions of the Graham Act, a package of measures aimed at tightening economic pressure on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, as representing what he called "an important and truly historic moment."

Those statements followed by one day the release of an executive order from the White House, a document in which Trump described the waiver as serving the national interest. Those provisions drew their operative force from legislation bearing Senator Lindsey O. Graham's name — a bill directed at Russia and Iran that Trump signed into law around mid-September 2026 — and an activation date embedded in that statute had come due.

Dmitriev, in a post on X, contended that the bill — co-sponsored by the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, and aimed at tightening pressure on Russia over its 2022 military action in Ukraine — had undergone what he described as fundamental alterations after Graham's death, and that in its revised form it carried the potential to halt bilateral trade and economic activity between Russia and the United States, with consequences he said would fall disproportionately on American markets and global financial stability. He further maintained that cooperation between the two countries serves both nations' interests and underpins broader global economic equilibrium, and called for dialogue and shared responsibility in place of sanctions-based approaches.

Proposed measures in the bill covered penalties targeting Russian officials and financial institutions, alongside ships connected to an informal network of oil tankers operating outside conventional oversight. Duties under the legislation extended to levies of as much as 100 per cent on goods arriving from nations that were either buying Russian energy or helping circumvent the sanctions regime, covering the largest purchasers of Russian oil and gas.

Both nations — among the largest purchasers of Russian oil on the global market — had put forward objections to the proposed measures. China's government characterised the measures as extraterritorial jurisdiction unsupported by international law, while India's government put forward that further tariff increases stood to strain relations between the two countries.

The waiver drew objections from Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, who argued in a written statement that the decision undermined commitments to Ukraine and ran counter to the intent of legislation passed by Congress to impose costs on Russia over its military actions there.

Within the executive order, a certification to Congress was noted as having been filed, attesting that the waiver served the national interest. No action will be taken beyond what the suspension already mandates unless the president or top-level officials determine that additional steps are warranted.