Oil pump jacks outside Almetyevsk, Russia, on July 14. Anadolu/Getty Images

After nine months of attempting to coax Russia into concessions using only incentives – whether by holding talks on repairing diplomatic relations or hosting a major bilateral summit on US soil – the Trump administration in an unexpected reversal announced “ massive sanctions ” Wednesday on Moscow’s two biggest oil producers.

Just one week earlier, President Donald Trump had backed away from supplying long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who secured an invitation to a second bilateral summit, this time in Budapest.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among the more hawkish members of Trump’s Cabinet regarding Ukraine , was tasked with preparing tha

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