Witkoff announced a possible easing of sanctions after the ceasefire in Ukraine

The easing of US sanctions against Russia will follow the ceasefire agreement in Ukraine. This was announced on March 19 by US President Donald Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, Steven Witkoff.

He noted that the issue of lifting Washington's restrictions against Moscow has not yet been discussed during Trump's recent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but it is obvious that such a topic will be raised in the future.

"We will come to a ceasefire. I think after that everything else will become details — the easing of sanctions and all the other things that will follow a full—fledged peace agreement," Witkoff said in a conversation with Bloomberg TV.

Trump's special envoy clarified that he even admits the possibility of resuming energy pumping through the Russian Nord Stream pipeline, adding that now "Russian oil is being sold cheaply to China," and this is unlikely to benefit the United States.

He added that the normalization of relations between the United States and Russia should concern the possibility of holding negotiations, which did not exist under the previous administration of former leader Joe Biden. Thus, President Trump has instructed the leadership of the State Department, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to actively engage in contacts with Russia, Witkoff added, noting that positive results from such work should follow very soon.

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On March 18, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant announced that Trump had ordered a review of the country's sanctions policy. According to him, many are abandoning the dollar, so the United States is going to switch to the most effective sanctions regime. Maxim Chirkov, Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Policy and Economic Measurements at GUU, noted on March 19 in an interview with Izvestia that due to anti-Russian sanctions, Western economies, including the United States, are facing serious challenges related to the loss of confidence in their financial and economic infrastructure.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 13 that Russia had adapted perfectly to the sanctions. He also recalled that the measures imposed are illegal and must be lifted.