Trump secretly greenlights sanctions relief for Russia in exchange for political prisoner releases

From the Newshound archive · first published 30 September 2026.

President Donald Trump has quietly sanctioned a Cold War-style backroom arrangement to relax sanctions on Vladimir Putin's Russia in exchange for freeing political prisoners, with US officials cleared to negotiate lucrative trade agreements covering Russian oil, diesel and rare earth minerals. The scheme was devised by Trump's Eastern Europe envoy John Coale, a former Trump lawyer, and remained under wraps until it recently surfaced. Ukrainian and European leaders are braced to react with fury, alarmed that any money reaching the Kremlin will go straight toward funding Putin's continuing invasion.

The plan surfaces only weeks after Trump signed legislation imposing tough penalties on Russia and any nation conducting trade with it.

Russia is reportedly 'at the table' because a 'massive' fertiliser deal Trump trumpeted on Truth Social last week would need to be shipped through Russian territory.