The US Treasury Department issued a licence on 13 August that takes financial transactions necessary for the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska out of the sanctions imposed on Russia until 20 August.
The move will allow Russia to spend money inside the United States and for American companies and others to accept payments related to the leaders’ meeting that would otherwise be prohibited by US sanctions.
Exactly which transactions are allowed is not specified.
At the same time, the decision states that the licence does not allow “unblocking of any blocked or effectively immobilised property” and does not provide for lifting the ban on transactions unrelated to the organisation of the summit in Alaska.
The summit between the US and Russian leaders is scheduled for 15 August in Anchorage, the largest city in the state of Alaska. It will be the first meeting between a Russian leader and a sitting US president since 2021. “The goal-end the war,” Trump said of what he hopes to achieve at the summit with Putin on 15 August.