Rubio: 60 days to study lifting the sanctions on Russia – a sharp remark on Zelensky over Starlink

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend the Graham Act’s sanctions and tariffs on Russia, saying that the president wants time to study their effects on the global economy. Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Saturday, October 17, before departing for Uzbekistan and India, he answered a question about Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who called the suspension a “big mistake”.

“The problem is that these sanctions were not only sanctions on Russia. They include tariffs on several countries, on India for example, and on others. I think the president wants to take the 60-day period to analyse what it would mean to impose both sanctions and tariffs for the global economy, even for the American one,” Rubio said. He cited the pressure on energy from Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the war in Ukraine: “We need this time to study all of these and find the right mix.” The October 16 executive order does not mention a 60-day deadline, but says that the exemptions apply until the president or the Secretary of State judge that new action is required.

Diesel and Starlink

On the Russian diesel deal, Rubio said that “this diesel would be sold anyway”, while on Kyiv’s complaints about restricted Starlink access he replied: “I’m not sure Zelensky knows what he’s saying, but it was not deliberate.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X that “the easing of sanctions will continue” and that the diesel deal and the move on the Graham Act “are not the end, unfortunately”. “The decision to undo all this seems wrong to me. And it certainly only helps the Russians. It only feeds their satisfaction and their desire to keep killing people. This certainly does not stop the war,” he noted, thanking the Democrats and Republicans who supported the law.

The order signed by Trump implemented and “froze” the same day the measures of the law, which provided for a 500% tariff on Russian products and 100% on products from the five biggest buyers of Russian oil and natural gas. China and India had reacted to the law. The decision comes after the Russian diesel deal, which had already provoked reactions from Democrats and Republicans in Congress. The Starlink restrictions Zelensky refers to are the subject of our report on the 161 km/h speed cap.