"The U.S. said it would help Russia boost agricultural exports and restore its access to payments systems, after the Kremlin demanded the easing of Western sanctions in return for a cease-fire in the Black Sea.
The announcement, which followed two days of talks involving the U.S., Russia and Ukraine, sets up a potential standoff between the U.S. and its allies in Europe, who imposed some of the sanctions at issue.
Russia said it would only comply with a Black Sea truce upon the lifting of some banking sanctions, which European nations have vowed so far to keep in place. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said he was opposed to weakening sanctions on Russia as a part of a deal.
It wasn't clear what benefits the deal confers on Ukraine. Ukrainian strikes with missiles and sea drones have long forced the Russian navy to withdraw from large parts of the Black Sea, facilitating an increase in Ukrainian grain exports. Kyiv's defense minister said after the deal was reached on Tuesday that Ukraine had the right to self-defense if Russian warships left the eastern Black Sea.
It couldn't be established whether the agreement meant that Russia would curtail its missile and drone strikes on infrastructure in Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which officials in Kyiv had said they wanted to be part of any deal.
Moscow said major Russian banks involved in the food and fertilizer trade would need to be reconnected to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, payment network, singling out Rosselkhozbank, a state-owned bank that deals with Russian agribusiness, but suggesting that other banks should also have their access restored.
Western sanctions never targeted Russian grain or agricultural exports directly because that is largely prohibited under international law and out of concern that such sanctions would raise food prices and increase global hunger.
But Russia said its agricultural exports were affected by the European port and banking sanctions.
The Kremlin has long sought the lifting of financial restrictions, which lie at the heart of the Western sanctions regime. The European Union has always said its banking sanctions allow exemptions for payments to Russia for permitted trade, such as in grain and fertilizers. Among the banks on which the EU didn't impose sanctions, for instance, is Gazprombank, one of Russia's largest, and a key conduit for payments for Russian natural-gas sales.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia has in the past complained that his country was cheated by the West's failure to remove impediments to Russian grain exports, including obstacles to insuring cargo ships and SWIFT's blacklisting of Rosselkhozbank.
"Putin's endgame is clear -- he wants to coax Trump into lifting sanctions on Russian banks and energy companies to enable the Kremlin to pull in the hard currency it desperately needs," said Edward Fishman, senior research scholar at Columbia University and a former senior U.S. sanctions official. "But there appears to be daylight between Moscow and Washington. The Russian statement goes much further on sanctions relief than the U.S. statement."
The European Commission, which manages EU sanctions policy, declined to comment. A senior EU official said Europeans remain determined to keep up the pressure on the Russian economy. EU countries would need to agree to reinstate Russian banks to SWIFT, which is based in Belgium.
The White House also said on Tuesday that it had agreed with Russia and Ukraine to take steps to implement a previously agreed cease-fire on attacks on energy facilities in both countries.
The U.S.-Russian agreement points to one of the many challenges a peace process will pose for both sides. While imposing sanctions on a regime is relatively straightforward, Western countries have repeatedly found that reversing some restrictions often has little impact on the ground.
In the first year of the conflict, Russian food and fertilizer exports were hampered by international sanctions. In December 2022, the EU adjusted its own sanctions regime under international pressure to make it clear to customs and port authorities in member states that they could receive fees from Russian vessels that were stuck in European ports carrying goods not under sanction.
However in the past two years, Russian agricultural exports and fertilizer sales have been robust. Even in Europe, Russian fertilizer exports have taken up an increasingly big share of the market, with the EU importing several billion euros of the product from Russia annually." [1]
1. Russia to Get Help On Trade In Swap For Truce --- Moscow demanded easing of Western sanctions to secure Black Sea cease-fire. Osipovich, Alexander; Norman, Laurence; Lovett, Ian. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 26 Mar 2025: A1.
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