In a continuing effort to choke off the main source of income — exports of oil and petroleum products — financing Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, a bipartisan group of U.S. legislators has introduced a bill ironically referred to as “DROP,” or “The Decreasing Russian Oil Profits Act of 2026.” The Act would require targeted sanctions on any foreign individual or entity involved in the purchase, importation, or facilitation of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products. [Alex Raufoglu, RFE/RL, February 12, 2026.]

In announcing the bill, one of its originators, Republican Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas, said:

“Russian energy is the lifeblood of the Kremlin’s war machine, and the DROP Act would drain this primary source of revenue.” Arguing that Putin has shown that he will not seek peace “until the cost of his continued bloodshed is too high,” McCaul added:

“It’s time for every nation and individual to choose between doing business with the free world or continuing to bankroll Putin’s brutality.” [Id.]

Another sponsor of the bill, Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY), said the bill would strengthen existing designations and close loopholes in current sanctions:

“Sanctions only work if they’re enforced,” Lawler said, adding that the new legislation would “cut off a key funding for Putin’s war machine.” He stressed that it is time to use “the full strength of American economic power to squeeze out the Kremlin.” [Id.]

There are, of course, a number of countries that still buy Russian oil. Not surprisingly, China, India, Turkey and Brazil are among their biggest customers; but two EU members — Hungary and Slovakia — also have failed to reduce their reliance on Russian energy: Hungary, at around 44.6%, and Slovakia, as much as 96% dependent.

This would explain the reason for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s side trip to the capitals of both countries following the Munich Security Conference last week for meetings with their respective Prime Ministers: Viktor Orban of Hungary and Robert Fico of Slovakia, both outspoken supporters of Putin and autocratic leaders in their own right.

At this stage, we can only speculate as to how Donald Trump’s administration proposes to convince Orban and Fico to comply with the new sanctions, when their dependency on Russian crude oil is so deeply entrenched. But my first guess is that it might have something to do with all of that recently-acquired Venezuelan crude.

We’ll see.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/17/26