The UK has granted a sanctions waiver on Russian oil imports to manage fuel shortages caused by the Hormuz blockade. The war Washington launched without allied coordination is now forcing its closest partner to fund the economy it spent three years trying to isolate.
The Trump administration extended a waiver allowing purchases of Russian oil — a policy that manages the humanitarian fallout of its own Iran war by directing demand toward Moscow at the moment Russian oil revenues fund the Ukraine invasion.
As Trump's military campaign against Iran enters its third week, oil prices are surging and Western resolve on Russian sanctions is cracking — delivering Putin exactly the geopolitical opening he needed.