Analysis: Arms deliveries, sanctions loopholes: How Trump's recent moves benefit Russia
www.france24.com

... Two recent decisions by US President Donald Trump have directly benefitted Russia, both in the war in Ukraine and in its economic standoff with Europe. The White House halted a planned shipment of arms to Kyiv and deliberately bypassed existing sanctions to offer economic relief to Russia's nuclear giant Rosatom and to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Fewer US weapons for Ukraine, more financial leeway for Moscow " two decisions out of Washington in recent days have laid bare how Trump's return to the White House is already reshaping the war in Ukraine and Western pressure on Moscow.

Washington announced on Tuesday it would suspend deliveries of certain military equipment to Ukraine. The White House said it was simply following the Pentagon's recommendations amid concerns about maintaining sufficient reserves for America's own defence needs.

Just a week earlier, another Trump administration decision opened up new commercial avenues for Russian companies in the nuclear sector, most notably Rosatom. The US Treasury introduced an exemption to a Biden-era ban on doing business with Russian banks.

While narrowly tailored to civil nuclear energy financing, this marks the first formal breach in US sanctions against Russia under Trump -- sanctions that had steadily intensified since Washington's initial response to Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014. ...