Trump’s stillborn diesel deal: Why Russian oil tankers are not heading to the US

The Agioi Fanendes, an oil tanker loaded with 40,000 metric tons of diesel, represents US President Donald Trump’s last chance to see his controversial diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin come to fruition. The deal was reached last month, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, amid soaring fuel prices and a cost of living crisis in the US. It failed to prevent a thumping in the polls for the Republicans, with a “blue wave” carrying Democrats to a landslide victory across the country. Read moreTrump strikes diesel deal with Putin, reversing years of pressure on Russia over Ukraine war Now the deal designed to throw Trump a political lifeline is unravelling on the high seas. The Maltese-flagged Agioi Fanendes is the first of three oil tankers to leave Russia – officially to deliver their precious cargo to the US – that is still heading toward the American coast, the Financial Times reported in an article published a day after the midterm elections. The Talisman, a Russian oil tanker on international sanctions lists, departed from the St. Petersburg area on October 22. But after sailing through the English Channel, it turned south, skirted the Bay of Biscay and the P...