In June 1982, Ronald Reagan imposed sanctions to prevent European firms from using American technology to help build a pipeline that would carry Soviet gas to western Europe. He warned that Europe was making itself a hostage to the Kremlin and contributing to the Moscow’s war chest. Then, 18 days before that November’s congressional elections, he offered to sell the Soviet Union up to 23 million tonnes of grain.
Europeans, told to tear up their own contracts while American farmers were invited to feed Moscow, cried hypocrisy. Even the Kremlin’s own news agency called the offer an electoral ploy. Reagan’s Republicans lost 26 House seats anyway, and about 10 days after the vote he lifted the pipeline sanctions.
Forty-four years later, the commodity is diesel. Last week, a tanker left Russia for New York carrying 40,000 tonnes of the fuel, an import Congress banned in 2022. It sails under a temporary Treasury licence meant to bring down pump prices before the November 3 midterm elections, though its cargo arrives four days after polls close.